The latest official figures cited in the report put the death toll from the Urda rail disaster at 69, with around 50 people still missing. The collision happened at about 08:53 on 28 October between Mora and Orgaz, around 140 kilometres south of Madrid, on Spain's Madrid-Seville high-speed line. A state-operated Renfe train struck the rear of a stationary Iryo train. Dozens were injured. Rescue crews searched the wreckage with cranes and sniffer dogs. Thermal drones were also used.
Spain declared three days of official national mourning, from midnight on 28 October until midnight on 31 October. Flags flew at half-mast at public buildings and diplomatic missions; navy ships also lowered theirs. Public events were cancelled or scaled back, and a minute’s silence was observed at Madrid’s Atocha station. By 31 October, Euronews reported that 67 missing-person reports remained active, including 14 concerning foreign nationals. Authorities were collecting relatives’ DNA samples in Madrid and Toledo. The work also took place in Córdoba and Seville as victim-identification efforts continued. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged a full investigation; the cause of the collision had not been established.
Pedro Jota Fernández reported on Anne Igartiburu’s programme on La 1 that Leonor had marked her birthday with a family lunch at Zarzuela. Her parents, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, attended, as did her sister, Infanta Sofía. The account also said that the two grandmothers, Queen Sofía and Paloma Rocasolano, had joined them.
The gathering was held in private. Sofía is studying at Forward College in Paris, where she is in her second year at the university’s Paris campus. Leonor began a degree in Political Science at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in September. She combines it with her institutional duties as heir to the Crown.
Informalia had also reported that Leonor spent an evening at a well-known nightclub in central Madrid. The birthday came days after she presided over the 46th edition of the Premios Princesa de Asturias in Oviedo. The rail disaster disrupted the Royal Household’s schedule: Felipe VI and Letizia suspended their engagements to visit injured people in Toledo. Coverage of the tragedy has included a presenter’s reaction to the crash.
The report said the King and Queen were preparing a state funeral at Toledo Cathedral for the following week. The disaster came nine months after the Adamuz accident in January.
