The crash happened just before 9am on Wednesday near Urda, in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha. According to The Guardian, both trains were travelling from Madrid towards Andalucía. A train from state operator Renfe hit the rear of a stationary train run by private company Iryo. The impact knocked several carriages off the track.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said an automatic control system went down on 69 kilometres of track, and all trains there were stopped. He said the control centre then decided to resume traffic in circumstances he called "inexplicable". The Standard reported that the Renfe train travelled 25 kilometres before hitting the Iryo train. Puente said the control centre had enough time to verify the error but did not fix it.
The regional government raised the death toll to 69 from 68 on Thursday, as sniffer dogs and thermal drones searched the site. Regional leader Emiliano García-Page said 50 people were still being treated in hospitals. Spain's foreign ministry said 42 foreign citizens from seven countries were involved. One of them was killed and at least seven were injured. The Guardia Civil said relatives had reported 64 people missing. It has set up offices in Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville to collect DNA samples.
Among the dead were Guardia Civil officer José Manuel Chacón, 31, and Fátima Báñez, a former labour minister for the conservative People's Party (PP), The Guardian reported. A school in Urda, about 130km south of Madrid, now serves as an information centre for relatives. Red Cross teams are offering them support.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who faces a general election on November 29, visited the emergency command centre in Toledo. He pledged to establish every detail of the tragedy and strengthen safety measures. King Felipe VI visited injured passengers in a Toledo hospital and called for lessons to be learned. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called for an immediate investigation and a "complete and independent review" of the whole rail network.
Train drivers went ahead on Thursday with a strike called before the crash, pressing for more investment in rail safety. Diego Martín of the drivers' union Semaf said the sector must have all the safety systems it needs.
The crash was Spain's second deadly high-speed collision this year. In January, 46 people died when two trains collided near the town of Adamuz in Andalucía. According to The Guardian, Wednesday's crash was Europe's deadliest train accident since 2013, when a derailment in Santiago de Compostela killed 80 people.