Spain Train Crash: 69 Confirmed Dead, 70 Reported Missing, Only 13 Victims Identified

Since two high-speed trains collided near Urda in Toledo province on Oct. 28, the confirmed death toll has reached 69, and the work has shifted to a slow, painful task: figuring out who the dead are.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page briefed reporters on the latest figures. At least 70 people are reported missing. Emergency services have confirmed the identities of only 13 victims.

Another 31 body bags hold partial remains awaiting identification. Officials called the process "very complex." Some of the missing may be among those not yet identified, so the 70 figure and the unidentified remains are not separate counts.

Victims from dozens of countries

Sánchez said people of up to 27 nationalities may be among those killed or injured. Authorities are working with the relevant embassies and consulates.

Sources at Spain's foreign ministry put the number at at least 51 foreign nationals from 23 countries. Two are believed dead, nine were injured, 18 were largely unharmed, and the status of 22 is unclear. Those figures may change as identification continues.

The State Department has said several Americans are believed to have been hurt.

Of the 110 people hospitalised, 71 have been discharged. Thirty-nine remain in hospital.

What the interim report says

Spain's independent crash investigation body has issued an interim report. It says the Renfe Ave train was travelling between 160 and 200 km/h when it hit the stationary Iryo train ahead of it.

That range brackets Transport Minister Óscar Puente's earlier estimate of roughly 124 mph, about 200 km/h.

The report says the full investigation could take weeks or months. Investigators have not yet been able to speak to some key witnesses.

Puente has already given the government's account. A computer malfunction knocked out a safety system covering about 39 miles of track around 8:30 a.m. Trains in the area stopped. The central control centre then authorised the Renfe train to resume without speed restrictions, a decision Puente called "inexplicable." The collision came a little over 20 minutes later.

Puente said the drivers were not responsible. At a minimum, he said, the train should have been told to proceed at reduced speed while a stop signal remained active. The investigators' interim report is the independent check on that account, and its final findings are still weeks or months away.

Confidence in the network

Sánchez acknowledged that confidence in the high-speed network, once a source of national pride, is "broken."

"The government's job is not just to make the diagnosis, but to offer solutions so that a tragedy of this magnitude never happens again," he said. "And that's what we're doing."

This is the second deadly accident this year between trains of the same two operators, Renfe and Iryo, on the Madrid-Andalusia line. January's crash at Adamuz in southern Spain was the first. Before 2026, Spain had one of the lowest train fatality rates in the European Union, and the European railway agency says more than 90% of the network has the highest level of safety control systems available.

Politics a month before the vote

Sánchez faces re-election on Nov. 29. The opposition has seized on the crash.

Santiago Abascal, the Vox leader, wrote: "Tragedy again. Rage again over the neglect, the ruin, and the betrayal suffered by the Spanish people."

The government's position, as stated by Puente, is that this was a decision failure at the control centre and not the fault of train crews. Adif, the state infrastructure manager, said on the day of the crash that it had not yet identified a cause and was examining its systems and reconstructing the sequence of events.

Neither the interim report nor any official statement so far has assigned responsibility for the control centre's decision to a named person or department. The independent investigators' final report, still weeks or months away, is the document that will decide that question, and the identification of the last victims will take at least as long.

The campaign opens before either is finished.