Sky News halted its regular programming to broadcast a live address from Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez following a collision between two trains on the Madrid-Andalusia high-speed line. The crash has resulted in at least 68 deaths and hundreds of casualties, according to the Castilla-La Mancha regional government.
Prime Minister announces three days of mourning
Speaking to a gathered crowd in scenes broadcast live on the news channel, Sánchez announced an official three days of mourning and outlined the immediate priorities. "[Our] priority is to attend to the victims, assist the victims, and to make sure that a maximum number of people survive throughout this tragedy. And to assist the nearest and dearest of the injured," he said.
He continued: "Secondly, as I said before, I think it is very important to underscore the extraordinary coordination between the various public services who have been involved in extraordinary cooperation, which has happened throughout the area."
Investigation into the causes
Sánchez also thanked the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha and all autonomous regions for their assistance. He stated that the second objective is to establish what happened and why, noting that the Minister of Transport was with him and that they were already trying to determine the cause of the crash.
"And Chairman Paje of Castilla Zamancha. Castilla-La Mancha has also joined the effort, and so our main aim now is to establish the causes of the crash," he added. He mentioned that if there were failures in the security system, they would need to be remedied, and referred to an independent investigation committee that would examine the accident.
This is a breaking live TV story, and the Showbiz Express.co.uk team will be updating this story with the latest information as soon as it is received.
