Spain transport minister says he won't resign over high-speed rail disaster

Spain's transport minister says he won't resign over the high-speed rail collision that has left at least 69 people dead.

Óscar Puente told a news conference in Madrid he had "nothing to hide" while repeating the government's vow to get to the bottom of the disaster, saying many questions needed to be answered.

"My duty right now is not to talk about whether I should remain in my position, but to resolve the problem," Puente said.

The transport minister has been facing calls to step down in the aftermath of the tragedy, including from political rivals, a trade union and demonstrators who protested outside the transport ministry on Wednesday night.

Dozens were killed and many more injured when a state-operated Renfe high-speed train smashed into the back of another stationary train operated by the Iryo company near the town of Urda, in the central Toledo province, on Wednesday morning.

A preliminary report released by transport investigators late on Thursday found the Renfe train was travelling between 160km/h (99.4mph) and 200km/h when the collision occurred, causing its front carriage to become embedded in the tail of the stationary train.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said earlier on Friday that public trust in Spain's high-speed rail network had been broken and repeated it was "unacceptable" that there had been two similar tragedies within a year.

In January a collision on the same Madrid-Seville route killed 46 people in Adamuz in southern Spain.

Kaynak: BBC News World RSS (Açık Basın / Haber Servisi)