Spain just suffered its deadliest train crash in over a decade

At least 30 people are dead after two high-speed trains collided in central Spain this morning.

It happened just before 9:15am local time near Urda, in Toledo province. That's on the high-speed line between Madrid and Seville. Some reports place it between Los Yébenes and Urda, others between Mora and Orgaz. Either way, same stretch of track, south of Madrid.

Here's what happened. A Renfe AVE high-speed train ran into the back of a train run by the private operator Iryo. The Iryo train had stopped on the line. Two carriages came off the tracks.

So how many people were on board? Castilla-La Mancha's regional government, through Esther Padilla, says the Renfe train was carrying 397 people, and the Iryo train 147. Add it up and that's more than 500 people on those two trains.

And the death toll keeps moving.

Early reports said around 10 dead, with officials warning it would climb. Now it's at least 30. One later Spanish media update put it as high as 46 — no other outlet has matched that figure yet. Spanish authorities say around 50 people are seriously injured. CNN separately reports around 100 injuries in total.

Mónica García, Spain's Health Minister, spoke to a Spanish television station this morning. She said there is no confirmed figure yet, but that it is going to be a major tragedy.

That's Spain's own Health Minister saying the number everyone's reporting right now might not be the real one.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain's Prime Minister, posted on social media that he was shocked and distressed by what he called a serious accident. Óscar Puente, the Transport Minister, and Emiliano García-Page, the regional president of Castilla-La Mancha, are both at the scene.

Manuel Galán, the mayor of Urda, says a sports pavilion in the town is being prepared to take in passengers.

And here's a name worth knowing. Fátima Báñez, 59, was Spain's Employment and Social Security Minister from 2011 to 2018, under Mariano Rajoy. She now runs the Fundación CEOE. She was travelling on one of the trains. She has not been located yet. CEOE, Spain's employers' confederation, says on social media it's waiting for news on her, and has sent condolences to victims' families.

Adif, the state body that runs Spain's rail infrastructure, has suspended high-speed services between Madrid and Andalusia.

So what caused this? Nobody knows yet. Spanish authorities have not blamed anyone. An investigation into exactly what happened is now under way.

And this isn't the first time this year.

Nine months ago, a high-speed train crash near Adamuz, in Córdoba province, killed 45 people — one outlet says 46. Several outlets are calling today's crash the second deadly high-speed collision in Spain this year. CNN calls it the third rail disaster of the year, counting an earlier, non-fatal crash that killed a driver and triggered a strike.

Al Jazeera points out this is Spain's deadliest rail accident since 2013, when 80 people died in the Santiago de Compostela derailment.

What's still not known? Why the Iryo train had stopped on the line. Why the Renfe train didn't stop in time behind it. Whether Fátima Báñez has been found. And how high the death toll will finally go.

Right now, the only thing everyone agrees on is that the number is still rising.