Funeral service after train accident with 69 dead in Spain

69 candles stand at the center of the funeral mass in Toledo Cathedral - one light each representing each life that has expired. 69 residents of Urda, the small town near the accident site, place candle after candle at the foot of a cross that was specially brought to Toledo from the town.

Grief and pain are palpable. Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia sit in their seats with stony faces. They're not the only ones.

Ana Benitez lost her brother David in the train accident. Concentrated, she recites the first reading, from the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians: "Comfort one another with these words" - this is how the reading ends, but there is no trace of consolation in Anas or in the faces of other relatives.

Uncertainty about the cause of the accident

In addition to the sad certainty that their loved ones were taken from their lives prematurely, there remains uncertainty as to what caused the catastrophic collision between two high-speed trains on the Madrid-Seville route. Why the control center in Madrid gave the signal to one train to continue its journey, which then drove into the second train that was still on the route at almost 200 kilometers per hour.

In the Cathedral of Toledo on Tuesday evening, many are looking primarily for consolation and the feeling of not being alone with the incomprehensible. For example, Bárbara Molero, who traveled daily on a high-speed train on the route involved in the accident until the accident:

There were also politicians among the mourners

José Luis Hernández came to Toledo with a few others from Urda for the funeral service. The misfortune continues to weigh heavily on him:

In a few days, the official election campaign for the early parliamentary elections at the end of November will begin in Spain. Politicians such as the acting Minister of Transport, Carlos Cuerpo, and the head of the largest opposition party, PP, Alberto Nunez Feijóo, are also among the mourners.

However, Pilar Fernández - she sits on the Urda city council for the conservative People's Party PP - doesn't want to know anything about politics that evening. She says: The most important thing is that 69 families have been destroyed and many people are in hospital. That alone is important, not the political orientation.