"All of Spain is in mourning," said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday, just a few hours after a collision between two trains that killed at least 68 people in Urda, in one of the worst train disasters in the country’s recent history.
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“It is unacceptable for a country like Spain to experience two train accidents on its high-speed network in the same year, as we have,” he continued, referring to the tragedy in Antamuz, which left 46 people dead in January in Andalusia.
“A breach of protocol,” said the Minister of Transportation
The Minister of Transportation stated that the deadly train accident occurred after a Renfe high-speed train was allowed to continue on its route, despite an active red signal caused by a stationary train on the tracks ahead of it, in violation of safety protocol.
Speaking to reporters in Madrid, the Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puente, stated that the red signal was activated due to a malfunction in the electronic system’s communications, which led to the automatic suspension of traffic. However, the wrong decision was made to allow the Renfe train to resume its journey.
He described the resumption of rail traffic as “inexplicable” following the technical failure of the network’s safety system (LZB).
“It is the control center, through its operators, that makes the decision to resume service under conditions that, from our perspective, are inexplicable,” said Óscar Puente at a press conference, adding that he is “devastated” by the tragedy.
READ ALSO: Horrific images: 68 dead, dozens injured at the site of the terrible train collision in Spain | AlphaNews
Rescuers in Spain are combing through the wreckage in search of victims. Passengers who had been evacuated from the trains were walking along a road near the accident site. Some were covered in blood or had their wounds bandaged, while others were dragging their suitcases. Volunteers offered them water, which, they said, had been sent from neighboring towns.
Hundreds of ambulances, hearses, and helicopters were stationed next to a train, several cars of which remained perched on an elevated section of the railroad track.
At the same time, mangled metal parts, broken panels, and debris were scattered across the slope below the track, where at least three cars had come to rest after falling from the elevated section.
Traffic on the surrounding roads has been halted to facilitate access for rescue teams and allow for the removal of the victims.
Jesús Pérez Martín, mayor of the town of Los Gebenes, near the site of the accident, said the situation there is “horrific.” “I’m hearing reports of amputations and very serious injuries,” he told RTVE.
According to an emergency services spokesperson who spoke to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the collision occurred “at 8:54 a.m.” (09:54 Cyprus time) between “two trains, one operated by Iryo and one by Renfe,” near the Urda station in the Castile-La Mancha region.
Iryo is a private company, a 51% subsidiary of the Italian railway operator FS, while Renfe is Spain’s state-owned railway company.
For its part, Renfe—one of whose trains was operating the Madrid-Seville route and was involved in the accident, stated in a press release that it is in the process of “gathering information in order to assess the extent of the accident.”
READ ALSO: “We could hear people screaming”: Shocking testimonies from survivors of the tragedy in Spain | AlphaNews
