#BBCNews At least 68 people are known to have died in Spain’s high-speed rail disaster, with many more injured.
It took place when a train travelling from Madrid to Seville smashed into another train which had come to a halt due to a computer failure. The force pushed several carriages down an embankment.
Spain’s transport minister said the computer failure followed by human error caused the collision, which is one of the deadliest ever recorded in Europe.
The collision happened around 100 miles south of Madrid. The stationary train with 147 passengers on board, run by private rail operator Iryo, was one of several trains that had come to a halt due to the computer failure.
Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that operators at a centre in Madrid had then taken control, but had made an "inexplicable" decision to instruct another train to proceed again at full speed, leading it to run into the rear of the stationary train.
Survivors described harrowing scenes of passengers being thrown into the air, trapped in the wreckage and smashing windows to get out. One of the carriages caught fire. Spain's Civil Guard said it would need DNA samples from relatives to identify some victims.
"The whole of Spain is grieving", Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said during a visit to the crash site. "Lives have been shattered, families have been torn apart, the pain is immense."
Spain was already reeling from a high-speed rail disaster further south on the same line near Córdoba in January that killed 46 people.
Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Guy Hedgecoe.
At least 68 people have been killed in one
of the worst ever train crashes in Spain,
the second high-speed crash in Spain in a year.
These are live pictures from the scene right now.
More than 12 hours later, rescue workers, they're using giant cutters
to cut through one of the carriages in the search for more victims.
Hundreds of ambulances were at the scene this morning.
Helicopters flew back and forth to hospitals
with dozens of critically injured people.
The high-speed trains were heading south from the capital, Madrid,
when they collided at about 9 o'clock this morning.
There were more than 500 people on board the two trains,
which were both heading to Seville.
Now, these trains can reach speeds of more than 180 miles an hour.
The red train on the left of the picture was stationary
when it was slammed into from behind by another train at high speed
and the impact left one train carriage embedded in another.
It sent carriages rolling down the embankment.
Well, Guy Hedgecoe has been at the crash site all day
and he has sent us this report.
Just another Wednesday morning for hundreds
of people travelling by train through central Spain
until disaster struck.
A high-speed train belonging to Spanish company Renfe travelling
from Madrid to the southern city of Seville
ploughed into the back of a stationary train owned by Italy's Italo.
Chaos ensued as some carriages slid off the rails down an embankment.
We were one of the first ones to get out,
it was very hard to see, there was dead bodies,
there was missing limbs
and I don't know if that's something I'll ever recover from and
get used to.
Pictures from the crash show a horrific scene
and the death toll has climbed throughout
the day.
I'm at the crash site,
the two trains that collided a couple of hundred yards away from me
and there has been an enormous deployment
of emergency services here over the last few hours.
The crash happened on the plains of Castilla-La Mancha,
next to the sleepy village of Urda.
At least 80 people were injured, 50 of them seriously.
Many have been treated in the local sports hall,
while others were taken to hospitals,
either in nearby Toledo or in Madrid.
King Felipe was among those who have been following the day's
events. First and foremost we would like to mourn this terrible tragedy
and we would like to convey
to the families our condolences, our sorrow,
our support and our affection at such a hard difficult time
The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, visited the crash site.
He and other politicians temporarily suspended their campaigning
ahead of next month's general election.
This is the second major rail crash in Spain this year.
In January, 46 people were killed
when two trains collided on this same line.
The exact cause of this latest accident is still not known,
although the transport minister suggested computer failure
combined with human error could be behind it.
Spaniards are mourning as faith in their rail system
has been severely shaken once again.
Vigils have been held across Spain this evening
in tribute to those who died in the accident
and also three days mourning have been declared.
But in the meantime, behind me,
rescue workers continue to pick through the wreckage of the accident
and the worry is that the death toll could increase even further over
the coming hours.
