TOLEDO, Spain – Spain started three days of national mourning on Thursday after a high-speed train crash killed 69 people and left families desperately searching for news about their loved ones.

The disaster happened on Wednesday morning when a Renfe train crashed into the back of a stopped Iryo train south of Madrid. Both are Spanish train operators, with Renfe run by the state and Iryo privately owned.

Manuel San Emeterio travelled to Toledo to give DNA samples to the Civil Guard. His brother Pepe remains missing.

“The uncertainty is the worst thing that you deal with, everyone is dealing with it,” he said. “But I think there’s something that counters it, which is hope… we must never lose it.”

Morgue overwhelmed as bodies identified

Toledo received 52 bodies, far more than its morgue can handle. The facility has space for 30 bodies. The army set up a temporary morgue with red tents and refrigerated containers.

Forensic experts in green jackets worked alongside funeral vehicles and army trucks at the site, an AFP reporter saw.

Search teams used sniffer dogs and thermal drones to look for bodies at the crash site near Urda, a village about 130 kilometres south of Madrid.

The death toll climbed from 68 to 69 on Thursday, regional officials confirmed. Former labour minister Fatima Banez died in the crash. She had served in the main conservative Popular Party government.

Families wait for news

Jose Miguel Fernandez, a parish priest in Urda, helped emergency workers support families waiting to hear about their loved ones.

“Many of them were calm, others were nervous and desperate. They wanted to know straight away and get news” of their loved ones, he told AFP.

Flags flew at half-mast across Spain. The government cancelled or scaled back official ceremonies and public events.

People observed a minute of silence across the country, including at Madrid’s busiest train station, Atocha. Some mourners cried during the tribute.

Second disaster raises safety fears

The crash happened on a main line between Madrid and Seville. The same route saw a collision in January that killed 46 people.

Spain runs the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network after China. The latest disaster has raised fresh questions about safety.

Toledo resident Marcos Ibanez (28) told AFP he had avoided high-speed trains “for a long time because of this”.

“I’ve gone through the place where the accident happened several times… and you never know when it might be your turn,” he said. “Most people are pretty fed up.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the crash site. He faces a general election on 29 November.

“To establish every last detail of this tragedy and strengthen safety measures to ensure it never happens again,” Sanchez promised.

King Felipe VI visited injured passengers in Toledo. He called for measures “to ensure this does not happen again”.

ALSO READ: Spain declares three days of mourning after 68 die in deadly train crash

Control system failure blamed

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said an automatic control system failed on 69 kilometres of track on Wednesday. All trains on that section stopped.

But the control centre decided to “resume traffic in circumstances that, from our point of view, are inexplicable”, Puente said. The Renfe train travelled 25 kilometres before hitting the Iryo train.

The control centre “had more than enough time to verify the error, and they did not fix it”, he added.

Opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo accused Puente of “frivolity” by blaming one control centre operator. Feijoo leads the Popular Party.

“Political responsibilities cannot wait for an investigation,” Feijoo said.

Diego Martin, who heads train driver union Semaf, said officials wrongly focused on “searching for culprits” when workers used “degraded systems”.

Strike disrupts services

Renfe train drivers continued a strike on Thursday that Semaf called before the accident “to defend rail safety”. The union said previous promises on safety had been broken.

Renfe reported “a major impact” as 26,6% of staff joined the strike.

The Madrid region’s commuter network suffered the worst disruption. Renfe cancelled 81% of planned services.

ALSO READ: High-speed train collision in Spain kills 39, dozens injured