Residents of the normally quiet Spanish town of Urda mobilized immediately to assist survivors and support grieving families following a deadly high-speed train collision on Wednesday. The crash occurred on a railway line situated just a few kilometres from the town, involving two high-speed trains between Mora and Orgaz.
Local reactions were swift as the community learned of the disaster. Urda’s 78-year-old pharmacist, Antonio Garcia, was among the first individuals to arrive at the accident site after his daughter alerted him. Driving his own car to the location, Garcia brought emergency supplies from his pharmacy, including first aid materials, painkillers, tranquillisers, and blankets.
Upon arrival, Garcia encountered a catastrophic scene where at least 68 people had been killed, with one train carriage wedged directly inside another and numerous bodies scattered across the area. Garcia recalled encountering a passenger who had lost an arm and was calmly requesting an ambulance, alongside another passenger who used his final moments to bid farewell to his family.
Beyond medical supplies, other local residents contributed by bringing bottles of water to distribute to passengers who managed to evacuate the wreckage. Within hours, Urda filled with police, firefighters, and emergency personnel from across the wider region.
Emergency response infrastructure was quickly established throughout the town. The local sports hall was converted into a temporary reception centre for survivors, while the local primary school was designated specifically for relatives seeking information about victims.
Carmen, a volunteer psychologist who traveled from Madrid, reported assisting at the primary school throughout the day. She described the harrowing environment of informing parents of the fatalities, noting that delivering the news to mothers that their children had died in the disaster was devastating.
Numerous family members journeyed roughly two hours from Madrid to Urda in search of missing relatives. Among them was a woman named Ana, who traveled to the town after environmental police recovered her dog, Trece, which had been aboard the train with her husband, Pepe. Ana searched the crash site, the sports hall, and the primary school while fighting back tears, finding that her husband’s name did not appear on any casualty or survivor lists.
