{"id":951129,"date":"2026-11-03T13:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951129\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:54:17","slug":"two-australians-dead-after-crash-of-high-speed-train-spanish-authorities-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951129\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Australians dead after crash of high-speed train, Spanish authorities say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Australians were killed in a deadly collision between two high-speed trains in Spain last week, the ABC has confirmed.<\/p>\n

The Communications Office of the High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha has told the ABC that two Australians were among the 69 people confirmed dead in the crash, and their identities had been communicated to their families.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The collision between two high-speed trains has killed 69 people. (Reuters: Forta)<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday’s disaster, one of Europe’s deadliest rail accidents this century, has seen victims’ relatives endure an agonising wait as forensics teams work to identify the dead.<\/p>\n

Investigations are continuing into what caused the crash after a high-speed train collided with another train that had stopped on the tracks around 130 kilometres south of Madrid, with 500 passengers on board the two trains.<\/p>\n

Trains in Europe are getting safer despite recent tragedies in Spain<\/a><\/p>\n

Spain was regarded as a world leader in rail systems, but two disastrous train incidents this year have raised questions.<\/p>\n

In an earlier statement, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said consular assistance was being provided to the families of the Australians.<\/p>\n

DFAT is continuing to engage with local authorities on whether there were any further Australians who were travelling on the trains.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday Spanish authorities confirmed all victims had been identified.<\/p>\n

“The identification process for those who died in the train accident in Urda, which has been underway continuously since last Wednesday at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences…has now resulted in the identification of all 69 victims.”<\/p>\n

The 69 identified individuals consist of 54 Spanish nationals and 15 foreign citizens 1 Argentine, 2 Australians, 1 Canadian, 1 Czech, 4 Americans, 1 French national, 2 Japanese, 1 Mexican, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Tunisian.<\/p>\n

The accident was Spain’s second high-speed train collision this year and raised fresh questions about the country’s rail safety, after a crash in the southern region of Andalusia in January killed 46 people.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Cranes help remove the wreckage of the trains involved in the collision. (Reuters: Ana Beltran)<\/p>\n

The latest disaster struck when a service by state operator Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to Spanish company Iryo<\/a> outside the central village of Urda, around 130km south of Madrid.<\/p>\n

The failure of an automatic safety system halted all trains on a 63-kilometre stretch of track, but a control centre authorised the Renfe service to resume its journey while the other train was still.<\/p>\n

The tragedy came one month before a November 29 general election in which Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will seek to overcome unfavourable polls and extend his eight-year premiership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez says it is unacceptable for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year. (Reuters: Fabian Bimmer)<\/p>\n

Following the collision last week, protesters including far-right groups gathered outside Spain’s Ministry of Transportation in Madrid to demand the government’s resignation.<\/p>\n

Hundreds took to the streets to call for accountability, with the rail system thrust into political contention since January’s crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said his government would declare three days of national mourning and called for increased safety measures to restore confidence in the high-speed rail system.<\/p>\n

ABC News \/ AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Australians were killed in a deadly collision between two high-speed trains in Spain last week, the ABC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-951129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}