At least 68 dead as high-speed trains collide in Spain - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Emergency services attend to the victims at the scene of a collision between two trains in near Toledo in Spain. (AP: Juanma Jiménez/Europa Press)

At least 68 people have died in a crash between two trains in central Spain, officials say.

The high-speed trains collided in the Toledo region on Wednesday morning.

Train lines between Madrid and the southern Andalusia region have been shut down.

At least 68 people have died in a crash between two trains in central Spain, local officials have confirmed. 

The collision is the deadliest rail disaster in Europe since a 2013 crash in Spain's Santiago de Compostela left 80 people dead.

The high-speed trains collided near the city of Toledo in the La Castilla Mancha region on Wednesday morning, shutting down the line connecting ‌Madrid to the southern Andalusia ‌region, rail operator ‌Adif said.

"Traffic ‌on the Madrid-Andalusia ‌high-speed rail line ‌has been suspended following ‌a rear-end ‌collision between two trains," it said on X.

397 passengers were on board the Renfe train and 147 passengers on the IRYO train at the time of the crash. (AP Photo: Manu Fernandez)

Regional spokesperson Esther Padilla previously said the death toll was "very likely" to increase.

She said 147 people were on board the Iryo train and 397 were on the Renfe train, and that several carriages had plunged down an embankment.

An official briefed on the accident shared that an Iryo express train was stopped at a signal when it was struck by a Renfe high speed train.

An aerial view of the crash site after two high-speed trains collided on Wednesday morning. (Guardia Civil via Reuters)

Spain's transport minister, Oscar Puente, later said the Renfe train was authorised to continue its journey despite there being an active red signal because of a stationary train on the track ahead.

He said the red signal was issued due to a computer communications failure, which automatically stopped traffic, and an erroneous decision had been made to restart the Renfe train, in a breach of protocol.

Ms Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that one train ran into the tail of the other, which was stationary, knocking two of its carriages off the track.

She said it was not known what had caused the crash, which occurred on a flat stretch between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes.

Two cars were derailed in the crash. (AP: Juanma Jimenez/Europa Press)

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García told TVE that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged cars, and that injured passengers were being sent to different hospitals in the area.

"It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy," she said.

Urda Mayor Manuel Galán told TVE that civil protection authorities had asked that the town prepare a sports pavilion to attend to injured passengers.

A military emergency brigade was deployed to help emergency services, firefighters and police to the crash site.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his agenda for Wednesday to focus on the crash. In a post on social media he said he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”

In January this year 45 people were killed and 120 others injured when an Iryo train derailed at high speed into the path of an oncoming train run by Renfe AVE, near Adamuz in southern Spain.

Two high-speed trains collided near Adamuz in January this year. (Reuters: Ana Beltran)

The accident is still under investigation. A preliminary report by Spain's Civil Guard in February pointed to defects in the track, rail or weld between two sections of track as the main hypothesis for the accident, but kept seven other theories open.