Spain Train Collision Leaves 69 Dead, Two South Koreans Injured

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The death toll from a high-speed train collision in Spain is nearing 70. The same route was the site of another accident that claimed 46 lives just last January.

Correspondent Kwon Yeongin reports from Paris.

[Reporter]

White and red trains are derailed and tangled together.

Three cars of the red train are severely damaged and overturned.

The train collision occurred at around 9:00 a.m. local time on the 28th in the Toledo region, south of Madrid, Spain.

[Rafael Barceló / Passenger : I was having breakfast, drinking coffee, when I felt a very strong impact. And all of us were thrown into the air.]

Out of 544 passengers on board, at least 69 were killed and over 100 others were injured.

Fifteen people are in serious condition.

The South Korean Embassy in Spain stated that 10 South Korean nationals were on board, two of whom sustained minor injuries and received hospital treatment.

[Lim Soo-suk / South Korean Ambassador to Spain : One person successfully underwent surgery yesterday and is currently in a general ward. The other person has already been discharged and has proceeded to their original destination.]

Spanish authorities explained that six trains had been halted along a 63-kilometer section due to a signaling system issue, when a state-operated train—instructed by the central control center to resume operation—rear-ended a stationary private train.

A system failure had mandated a speed limit of 40 kilometers per hour, but this was not observed.

[Passenger on the Private Train : We were stopped for 5 or 10 minutes, and I simply cannot understand how information telling the following train to stop could fail to be delivered.]

The Spanish government declared a three-day national mourning period and canceled major events, including professional soccer matches.

The same route previously saw a major train collision last January that killed 46 people and injured 150 others.

Although Spain boasts Europe's longest high-speed railway network and invests over 2 trillion won annually, the proportion allocated to maintenance budget stands at around 16%, lower than other European nations.

Critics point out that while the focus was placed on expanding the railway network and speed, inspections, maintenance of existing facilities, and investments in safety equipment may have taken a backseat.

[Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.