Two Australians killed in Spain’s second high-speed rail crash this year

Two Australians are among the 69 people killed in a horror high-speed train crash in central Spain, authorities have confirmed.

They died when a passenger train carrying hundreds of people slammed into the rear of a second stationary train, derailing carriages and trapping dozens of people.

The Wednesday morning (evening AEDT) crash in the province of Toledo, near the capital of Madrid, provoked protests that turned violent outside Spain’s Transport Ministry, amid a safety reckoning over the country’s second high-speed rail crash this year.

Spain’s government declared three days of mourning as testimonies of survivors filled Spanish television.

The Integrated Data Centre set up to coordinate investigations into the mass fatality said on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) work to identify all the bodies had been completed.

Among the dead were 54 Spanish citizens, and 15 foreigners, including two Australians, four Americans and a Canadian. 

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‘The whole of Spain is grieving’: Protests flare after at least 68 killed in two high-speed trains crash

No names were released due to data protection laws, but the centre said 40 men had died and 29 women.

All the families of the victims and relevant consular officials had been notified, it said.

9News has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.

On Friday, the department said it was providing consular assistance to the family of two Australians in connection with the crash.

“Australian officials are working with local authorities to confirm the welfare of the Australians. Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment,” a spokesperson said.

This was the second high-speed rail disaster this year. In January, 46 people died after one train jumped the track and slammed into the side of another going the opposite way in southern Spain.

Both took place on the same rail line between Madrid and Seville, the first of Spain’s high-speed network that opened in 1992. Each collision involved a train operated by state-owned RENFE and another operated by privately owned IRYO. 

Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente blamed the “inexplicable” order from a central command centre for the RENFE train to start moving again after the security system on a stretch of track stopped working due to a computer malfunction.

The failure caused all trains on the stretch to stop but the IRYO train was unable to restart and remained stationary.

Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since a “stop signal” was still active on that line.

The high-speed rail network has been considered one of Spain’s crowning achievements. It is the world’s second-largest, after China’s. Until this year, it had not experienced a deadly crash since coming into service over three decades ago.

The crash happened one month before a November 29 general election in which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is seeking to extend his eight-year premiership. 

He is now facing questions about the safety of the railways and investments under his governments in Spanish infrastructure. 

“We will need to do everything in our power to restore public confidence in our high-speed railway network. It is unacceptable for a country like Spain to experience two high-speed rail accidents in the same year,” he said last week.