• AFP photo showing truck crane operating at the site of a train crash between two high-speed units, a Renfe AVE train and an Iryo train around 150 km south of Madrid between Urda and Los Yebenes in the province of Toledo, on October 28, 2026.

Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday after its second high-speed rail collision this year killed 68 people and injured scores, with relatives desperately seeking news about their loved ones.

The collision happened in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha on Wednesday morning when a service by state operator Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to private Spanish company Iryo.

Emergency services combed through the wreckage at night to find further victims on the key line linking Madrid with the southern city of Seville, hoisting pieces of mangled metal with cranes, AFP reporters saw.

Josimar Medina, a 31-year-old Peruvian who was holidaying in Spain with his girlfriend, said he was sleeping on the Renfe train when “I woke up and I was in the air.”

Pablo Mejia, 42, escaped with injuries to his head, telling AFP that a last-minute change of seat saved his life.

Wearing a bloodstained grey jumper and holding his tattered suitcase, he recounted “a very strong hit… a lot of people on the floor, on top of each other, seats ripped out, suitcases, a lot of chaos”.“I think I’ve been born again,” he said.

At least 64 people have been killed, officials say, after a Spanish high-speed train collided with another train south of the capital Madrid, killed 64 passengers and injured 80.

The updated death toll makes the rail disaster the country’s worst since 2013, when 80 people died after a train derailed in north-western Spain.

More than 500 passengers were travelling on the trains involved in today’s collision, the spokesperson for the regional government says.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says he is “shocked by the serious train accident” and is in constant contact with the transport minister.

Rail operator Adif says the incident occurred between a Renfe train and another of the Iryo company, which covers the Madrid to Seville route”

It was a catastrophe” – a 17-year-old, who was travelling on one of the trains, tells a Spanish broadcaster there was “chaos” at the scene

•Villa Vie Voyage ship

A luxury cruise ship on a years-long voyage around the world said it suspended operations due to extraordinarily high fuel costs, leaving over 200 passengers stranded in Cambodia.

The US-based operator of the Villa Vie Odyssey said it was working with passengers on disembarkation plans and “temporary living arrangements”.

According to the BBC, the nearly 200m (656ft) vessel departed Belfast in October 2024 for a “continuous voyage around the world”.

Global fuel prices have soared since the Iran war started earlier this year. The ship’s operator said the monthly fuel cost per cabin in parts of Asia has risen to as much as $8,000 (£6,000) from $1,800.

Villa Vie Residences said it had taken “significant steps to reduce fuel consumption, including slowing the itinerary and spending more time in port”. But those measures turned out to be insufficient to “offset the extraordinary increase in fuel costs”

“Passing the full increase on to residents is not a realistic solution,” it said.The company would spend the next 60 days on “restructuring and recapitalisation”, though “no outcome is assured”, it said.

There were reportedly around 200 passengers on board when they were ordered to disembark in the Cambodian port city of Sihanoukville, a once sleepy beach town that has gained global notoriety in recent years as a hub for Chinese casinos and scam centres.

The Villa Vie Odyssey’s voyage was expected to span 3.5 years and cover nearly 150 countries, according to its website.