URDA — A high-speed train collision south of Madrid killed 68 people and injured scores more yesterday, authorities said, in one of Europe’s deadliest such disasters this century.

The second such accident to strike Spain this year will raise fresh questions about the country’s rail safety, with the transport minister speaking of an “error” and “inexplicable circumstances” that led to the crash.

AFP reporters on the scene in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha saw one train embedded into another and some carriages lying on their side at the bottom of an embankment strewn with debris.

The constant to-and-fro of emergency services vehicles continued at night, with rescuers using a drone, lights and cranes to hoist mangled metal and search for further victims in the cold.

Castilla-La Mancha’s leader Emiliano Garcia-Page told reporters at the scene that 68 people had died, raising an earlier toll of 64.

“We don’t know if another body might appear when the carriages are moved,” he added.

A spokeswoman from the Castilla-La Mancha regional government told AFP that more than 100 people had been injured, with 15 in a critical condition.

Pablo Mejia, 42, said that he had miraculously survived with injuries to his head after changing his seat.

With blood staining his grey jumper, he recounted “a very strong hit. It lasted a long time until it stopped, lots of people on the floor, on top of each other, seats ripped out, suitcases, a lot of chaos.”