Oct 28 (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed when two high-speed trains collided south of Toledo in Spain on Wednesday, regional authorities said.
It is the second deadly accident in less than a year on the line and will likely raise further questions over the country's train infrastructure ahead of November's snap election.
Here are some of Spain's deadliest train disasters, starting from the most recent:
ADAMUZ (2026)
Forty six people died and more than 120 were injured in southern Spain after a high-speed train derailed and collided with an oncoming one on January 18 near Adamuz, in the province of Cordoba.
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.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (2013)
A railway accident in the summer of 2013 left 80 people dead and 145 injured when an eight-carriage high-speed train veered off the track on a sharp bend near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, slamming into a concrete wall and bursting into flames.
A Transport Ministry commission concluded that the accident was caused by speeding and the driver being distracted by a call from a superior, but a victims' association blamed the accident not only on human error but also on the railway's security systems.
MADRID COMMUTER TRAIN BOMBINGS (2004)
On March 11, 2004, 10 backpack bombs detonated on four Cercanias commuter trains, killing 193 people and injuring thousands of others during Madrid's rush hour. The attacks were carried out by Islamists opposing Spain's participation in the Iraq war.
EL CUERVO (1972)
An accident caused by a head-on collision between two trains on the Cadiz-Seville route left 86 people dead and more than 150 injured near the southern town of El Cuervo in 1972. The accident was caused by a driver's failure to stop at a red light at El Cuervo station, according to an investigation by state-owned rail operator Renfe.
URDULIZ (1970)
A head-on collision of two trains killed 33 people in the town of Urduliz, near the northern city of Bilbao, in the summer of 1970. A stationmaster was initially blamed for the accident, but it later emerged that he had been working 16-hour shifts for the previous four days.
GRISEN (1965)
A train on the Madrid-Barcelona route caught fire in 1965 in the town of Grisen, near northeastern Zaragoza, killing dozens of passengers. Though the train operator said at the time that 30 people died, later reports have said the real death toll was up to 80 and that the Francoist leadership tried to play it down.
TORRE DEL BIERZO (1944)
The 1944 crash of three trains in the El Bierzo region of León province is considered one of the deadliest railway disasters in Spain, with the estimated death toll of 78 still being debated due to censorship under Francisco Franco.
A train travelling from Madrid to A Coruña suffered a brake failure and collided with a locomotive inside a tunnel, just before a third train entered the same gallery and crashed into the wreckage.
(Compiled by Mirko Miorelli and Javi West Larrañaga in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Alison Williams)