At least 30 people were killed when two high-speed trains collided in central Spain on Wednesday, sending carriages careering off the tracks, in the second major accident on the same line in less than a year. “We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail,” one passenger, Miguel, told Spain’s COPE radio, adding that he was travelling with several colleagues in the rear car of one of the trains. “Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train — I imagine it must have been the other one,” he added. Pictures showed several carriages laying on their sides next to the tracks and others at angles, their wheels sheared off. Debris was strewn around the scene off the accident in the countryside near the city of Toledo. The number of dead was confirmed to NBC News by the press office for the Castilla La Mancha region but the death toll is expected to rise as together the two trains were carrying more than 400 passengers. Locals rushed to the scene of the accident which has prompted a major national emergency response and raised questions about the the safety and security of Spain’s high-speed rail infrastructure, which had previously been hailed as among the most sophisticated in Europe. Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, told state broadcaster TVE that the trains were heading in the same direction from Madrid to Seville when one ran into the tail of the other which had stopped on the line. She added that some 397 people had been traveling on the state-owned Renfe train and 147 people on the private rail company Iryo train. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was “deeply saddened” by the crash and said emergency services were working to assist those affected. “My heartfelt sympathy, solidarity, and support go out to all the victims and their families,” he wrote on X. His sentiments were echoed by Spain’s royal family who also took to X to say they shared “in the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives.” The number of dead and injured remains unclear but officials said an emergency phone line had been set up for families of the victims. Manuel Galan, the mayor of the nearby municipality of Urda, said he had been asked by emergency services to prepare a sports hall to accommodate the injured. The crash comes 10 months after a deadly collision in January between high-speed trains run by the same operators, Renfe and Iryo, on the same line between Madrid to Seville. That accident left 45 people dead in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The January crash was the country’s deadliest since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people. Spain has the largest high-speed rail network in Europe for trains moving more than 155 mph, with more than 1,900 miles of track, according to the European Union.  — Hannah Peart contributed. ...read more read less