Rescue workers were scouring wreckage for more bodies at the crash scene on Wednesday in the province of Toledo.
Passengers removed from the train streamed along a road near the scene, some splattered with blood or with their wounds bandaged, others wheeling suitcases and being given water by volunteers who said it had been donated from neighbouring towns.
Hundreds of ambulances, funeral home vans and helicopters were parked next to a train with several carriages sitting on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could be seen strewn across an embankment beneath the line where at least three carriages had plunged.
Miguel, a passenger travelling with several colleagues in the rear car of one of the trains, described to COPE radio the moment of the accident.
"We heard a massive roar, a truly enormous thud that went on for 10 seconds, as if the train were about to derail. Through the right-hand window, we could see a wrecked train," he said.
A person briefed on the disaster said a train operated by private consortium Iryo stopped near Toledo on orders from infrastructure manager ADIF due to a signal fault.
A train operated by Renfe then struck the stationary train at high speed, causing several carriages of both trains to derail, the person said.
Renfe said in a statement that after a being authorised to continue its journey, its train had crashed into the Iryo train that had remained stationary "for reasons we don't know".
"The Renfe train continued on its way as instructed, and a collision occurred. The exact sequence of events, the traffic conditions and the circumstances of the impact will have to be established by the investigation," Renfe said.
The regional president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, said at least 80 people were injured and that the death toll "will surely rise" as rescue workers continue to search in the wreckage for survivors and bodies.
Spanish Health Minister Monica García said emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars.
The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yebenes, left one car shredded into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
The accident was between two high-speed trains heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain, according to Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region.
Padilla said 397 passengers were in the Renfe train and 147 passengers, including a baby, in the Iryo train.
Trains from those two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.
with AP
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