Spain train crash death toll rises to 69, emergency crews continue operations

We're joining now our correspondent in Spain, Sarah Morris, who's in Toledo, following that story for us. Sarah, what can you tell us about what's happening this morning and in Toledo? Well, we've just heard from Emiliano Garcia Pache, who said that 69 people had been killed. The death toll has risen. The president of Castilla-La Mancha has said, however, he was cautiously optimistic that the death toll would not further rise. Those who were hospitalized last night are doing better than expected, but he stressed the word caution. Many of those injured people were brought here to Toledo as well as to hospitals in Madrid. And this morning, Charles, those family members of relatives that were in those two trains are being asked to provide DNA samples at police stations in Toledo, Seville, Madrid to ensure the identification of the bodies. And the local authorities asked for patience as that process begins. Forensic scientists are at the scene of the crash. A judge has decreed a two-kilometre perimeter around the accident site there in Toledo province to allow the work to get underway. Hundreds and hundreds of police officers and military emergency workers are still involved in that operation to make sure the parts of that carriage are treated very carefully because, of course, the court investigation has already begun to find out what was the cause of this accident. The control centre in Madrid is being scrutinised. Did they give the wrong advice at the wrong time, given the computer error that had left the signal control system down and led to manual operations from Madrid? why the question is already being asked. Was that Renfe train allowed to speed into the Euro train that was stationed on the tracks? That Renfe train, we know from what the transport minister has already said, was travelling at 200 kilometres per hour. But, of course, the investigation continues. What's the wider mood in Spain this Thursday as these three days of mourning are declared? It's very, very angry, sad. There's also a lot of disbelief, Charles, about why a second deadly accident has happened within the same year. You'll remember in January, the same line was affected with the same two operators, the state operator Renfe and the Italian operator, and 46 people died then. The drivers have been striking and many critics say that this system, the infrastructure has been under-invested in, under-funded, that there is not enough maintenance. Of course, it was privatised in 2021, leading more operators to come into the field. And, of course, this will be a big election theme in the election that is being called early that will be held on November the 29th. Sarah Morris reporting there from Toledo on that train crash.