At least 46 people are feared dead after two high-speed trains travelling in the same direction collided near Toledo in central Spain on Wednesday morning.
The collision occurred at around 9am local time on the Madrid-Andalusia railway line, according to rail infrastructure operator Adif.
The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha confirmed 30 deaths, while Civil Protection sources told Spanish newspapers El Español and ABC that the death toll had exceeded 46, reports The Telegraph.
Two carriages reportedly derailed and plunged down an embankment between Los Yébenes and Urda in Toledo province.
The collision involved a state-owned Renfe AVE train carrying 147 people and an Italian Iryo train carrying 397 passengers.
Both trains were travelling from Madrid to Seville, a route popular with tourists and commuters.
Initial reports suggested that the AVE train struck the rear of the Iryo train, causing two carriages of the latter to derail.
Passengers also shared footage on social media showing smoke rising from one of the overturned carriages.
The Renfe AVE train had departed Madrid at 8:00 am for Seville, while the Iryo train was travelling in the same direction.
Jesus Jeronimo, 54, who was travelling to Seville for work on the AVE train, told Spanish newspaper El País that passengers had been thrown from the train by the impact.
“We thought we had derailed. Then, little by little, we got out and saw that our train was tilted,” he said.
Jeronimo said many passengers were injured or shaken by the collision.
He described seeing papers scattered across the floor and an unharmed child as survivors helped emergency workers by holding intravenous fluid bags.
Firefighters, meanwhile, concentrated their rescue efforts on the most severely damaged section of the train, he said.
Sources told Spanish newspapers ABC and El País that human error may have caused the collision after a worker repairing a fault in the main signalling system allegedly failed to warn the AVE train about the Iryo train ahead.
Preliminary analyses suggested that the Renfe train had slowed minutes before the collision because of a traffic disruption on the line, which had also forced eight other trains in the area to stop.
