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Four Americans Among 69 Dead in Spain Train Crash
Confirmed
In Short: Four Americans were among the 69 people killed in a high-speed train collision in Spain, according to officials.
Four Americans were among the 69 people killed in a high-speed train collision in central Spain, officials said Sunday. The crash occurred last week when a state-owned RENFE train traveling at speeds between 100 and 125 mph struck the rear of a privately owned IRYO train.
The collision, which involved more than 540 passengers, happened on the Madrid-Seville line in Toledo. It was the second major crash on this route this year, with the first occurring nine months prior.
The Center for Integrated Data, the legal body in charge of identifying victims in Spain, reported that the casualties included one citizen each from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia, and the Czech Republic, along with 54 Spanish nationals.
The crash happened one month before a general election in Spain, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is seeking to extend his premiership. The Center for Integrated Data had already announced the deaths of a French and Portuguese citizen, as well as 54 Spaniards, and said that all but three of the victims had been identified.
The crash site was marked by cranes lifting wrecked train carriages as rescuers searched for victims. One passenger, Miguel, described the collision to Spain’s COPE radio, saying, “We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail.”
The death toll from the crash has continued to rise, with Spanish authorities identifying 66 of the dead by late Sunday. The incident has drawn international attention, with global news outlets reporting on the tragedy and the ongoing investigation.
Background
At least 74 people were killed and over 100 injured when two high-speed trains collided in central Spain.
A high-speed train collision near Madrid on Wednesday killed at least 68 people and injured scores more, with the death toll expected to rise.
What's confirmed
- MADRID (AP) — Four Americans and one Canadian were among the 69 people killed in last week's high-speed train collision in Spain, authorities said.
- Cranes lift wrecked train carriages as rescuers search for victims following a collision between two trains in Urda, Spain, Thursday, Oct.
- The crash occurred Wednesday when a high-speed train collided with another train that had stopped on the tracks.
- The crash happened in Toledo, nine months after another collision on the same Madrid-Seville line.
- The crash happened one month before a Nov. 29 general election in which Sánchez is seeking to extend his eight-year premiership.
- Iran has "substantially increased" efforts to target U.S. personnel abroad, with plots to kill Americans reaching "advanced stages" in the Middle East and other countries, according to an intelligence memo obtained by Fox News.
What's still developing
- The two trains, with more than 540 people on board, were heading in the same direction from Madrid to Seville.
- "As the contacted families have expressed their wish to travel to Spain to carry out in-person identification, we are awaiting their arrival in the country," the statement said, AFP reported.
- Officials said at least 160 people have died so far in the disaster The death toll has continued to rise following a devastating flash flood near the Nepal-Tibet border as hundreds remain missing, including a number of Americans.
- Millions of rural Americans live in counties with doctor shortages and where high-speed internet connections aren’t adequate to access advanced telehealth services.
- U.S. intelligence has warned that Iranian plots to kill Americans in the Middle East and elsewhere have reached an advanced stage.
- The warning came as US agencies assessed that threats to Americans in the Middle East and several other countries were at their highest level since the war began in February, The New York Times reported, citing US officials.
- “We highly appreciate the mediation efforts of the American negotiators,” Peskov said.
- Americans Warned Again To Rethink Travel As Missile Attack Rattles Historic Region "The U.S. Department of State issued an ordered departure for non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia," the department said.
- About 80% of the town’s roughly 3,000 residents were Palestinian Americans, said Zaghoul.