Spain identifies foreign victims of high-speed train collision that killed 69

Key facts

• Four US citizens were among the 69 people killed in the collision outside Urda, authorities said.
• Single victims from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia and the Czech Republic were also confirmed dead.
• The identification body said all but three of the victims had now been identified.
• Three missing-person reports remained active, concerning two Australians and one Japanese citizen.
• The body said families of some victims wished to travel to Spain for in-person identification.

Four US citizens and one each from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia and the Czech Republic were among the 69 people killed in a high-speed train collision in Spain, authorities said. A legal body made up of police and forensics experts, set up to handle identification, announced the 10 latest confirmed foreign victims in a statement late on Sunday.

The body had already announced the deaths of a French and a Portuguese citizen, as well as 54 Spaniards. All but three of the victims are now identified, the statement said, and three reports for missing people remain active, concerning two Australians and one Japanese citizen. The statement said contacted families had expressed a wish to travel to Spain for in-person identification and that authorities were awaiting their arrival.

The collision struck when a service by state operator Renfe ran into the back of a stationary train belonging to Spanish company Iryo outside the central village of Urda, around 130km (80 miles) south of Madrid. The failure of an automatic safety system halted all trains on a 63km stretch of track, but a control centre authorized the Renfe service to resume its journey while the other train was still there.

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. It came one month before a November 29 general election in which Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez will seek to overcome unfavorable polls and extend his eight-year premiership.