Spain has begun three days of national mourning after a collision between two high-speed trains killed 68 people and injured scores of others.
The crash happened on Wednesday, morning in Castilla-La Mancha, central Spain, when a train operated by state-owned Renfe struck the back of a stationary train belonging to private operator Iryo.
Emergency workers continued searching through the wreckage overnight on the rail line linking Madrid with Seville, using cranes to move twisted metal and recover victims.
The disaster has raised fresh questions about railway safety in Spain, which suffered another fatal high-speed train collision earlier this year.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said an automatic control system had failed along a 69-kilometre stretch of track, forcing trains to stop.
He said the control centre later resumed traffic in circumstances he described as inexplicable, adding that the Renfe train travelled about 25 kilometres before hitting the stationary Iryo train.
Authorities have not yet established the full circumstances of the collision, and investigations are expected to examine the sequence of events that led to the crash.
Meanwhile, emergency services have set up support centres for relatives searching for missing family members. Police in Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba and Seville are collecting DNA samples to help identify victims.
Red Cross workers and other support teams are assisting relatives as they wait for information about their loved ones.
The latest collision comes after 46 people died in a separate high-speed train accident in the southern region of Andalusia in January. Investigations into that crash are still ongoing.
The two disasters have intensified scrutiny of Spain’s railway network and the authorities responsible for its safety
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