[Anchor]
Two trains have collided in Spain, with the death toll currently standing at 68. South Korean passengers were also on board, and it has been reported that two of them were injured.
Reporting from Paris, this is Kwon Yeongin.
[Reporter]
Carriages have derailed and overturned after two trains smashed into each other.
The trains are severely mangled, bearing testament to the massive impact of the crash, as emergency rescue workers comb through the wreckage for search operations.
At around 9:00 a.m. local time on the 27th, two high-speed trains collided in the Toledo region of Spain.
[Rafael Barceló / Passenger: I was having breakfast and drinking coffee when I felt a very strong impact. And all of us were thrown up into the air.]
A total of 544 passengers were on board the two trains, and at least 68 deaths have been confirmed so far.
The number of injured is also estimated to be approaching 100.
Spanish authorities stated that given the large number of severely injured among them, the death toll is expected to rise further.
[García-Page / President of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain: There are patients who can be adequately treated in hospitals, and there are 15 critical patients, leaving their conditions very serious overall.]
Meanwhile, the South Korean Embassy in Spain stated that 10 South Korean passengers were on the trains, two of whom sustained minor injuries and are receiving treatment in the hospital, while the remaining eight are safe.
The exact cause of the accident is not yet known, but some local media outlets report that signaling issues may have prevented the information that the leading train had stopped from being accurately transmitted to the following train.
[Passenger: We had been stopped for 5 or 10 minutes, and I simply cannot understand how the information telling the following train to stop could have failed to be transmitted.]
In Spain, which boasts Europe's longest high-speed rail network, a high-speed train accident also claimed 46 lives last January.
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