All 69 victims of Spain’s train collision near Urda are identified, including 54 Spaniards and 15 foreigners, in the country’s second rail disaster this year.
MADRID: Spanish authorities said on Monday they had identified all 69 people killed in last week’s high-speed train collision after confirming the identities of three more victims.
Wednesday’s disaster — one of Europe’s deadliest rail accidents this century — has seen victims’ relatives endure an agonising wait as forensics teams identify the dead, sometimes from individual body parts.
A legal body set up to handle the identification work, made up of police and forensics experts, announced in a statement late on Monday the three latest confirmed victims — two Australians and a Japanese citizen.
The victims include 54 Spanish nationals and 15 foreigners — four US citizens, two Australians, two Japanese and one each from Argentina, Canada, France, Mexico, Portugal, Tunisia and the Czech Republic.
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.
The latest disaster struck when a service by state operator Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to Spanish company Iryo outside the central village of Urda, around 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Madrid.
The failure of an automatic safety system halted all trains on a 63-kilometre stretch of track, but a control centre authorised the Renfe service to resume its journey while the other train was still.
The tragedy came one month before a November 29 general election in which Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will seek to overcome unfavourable polls and extend his eight-year premiership.
