How the Spanish train crash unfolded | Unpacked

A former minister is among 68 people dead after a high-speed train crash in Toledo, Spain.

Fátima Báñez, 59, who was minister of employment and social security under Mariano Rajoy, the former Spanish prime minister, was killed in the disaster at about 9am local time on Wednesday.

The trains were both travelling from Madrid to Seville when one went into the back of the other after the driver was wrongly informed the track was clear.

Emiliano García-Page, the president of the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, confirmed that 68 people were known to have died, with 80 injured, including five critically.

He confirmed that Ms Báñez, who served in the government until 2018, was one of those killed.

Two carriages reportedly derailed and fell down an embankment between the towns of Los Yébenes and Urda in Toledo province.

The trains involved were a state-owned Renfe AVE train, carrying 147 people, and an Italian Iryo train, carrying 397 passengers. Both were covering the route from Madrid to Seville, which is popular with tourists and commuters.

Officials said the AVE train had hit the back of the Iryo train, causing two of the carriages on the Iryo train to derail.

Images from the scene showed carriages falling down the side of the embankment while the rest of the trains remained on the tracks, with emergency services surveying the wreckage.

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