Two Australians identified among the 69 killed in Spain's train disaster

Spanish authorities have identified three more victims of last week's high-speed train collision — two Australians and a Japanese citizen — all of whom remain unnamed. The identification work is being handled by a legal body of police and forensic experts, which announced the confirmations late on Monday. The crash killed 69 people, making it one of Europe's deadliest rail accidents this century.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Wednesday morning it was providing consular assistance to the families of the two dead Australians. The department offered its deepest condolences to the families. Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong had already reached out on Tuesday evening, sending her condolences on behalf of Australia to her Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, and to the people of Spain. Wong described the collision as devastating and said Australia's thoughts were with those who lost loved ones, the injured and everyone affected.

The victim list spans borders: 54 Spanish nationals and 15 foreigners. Alongside the two Australians and two Japanese citizens, the dead include four US citizens and one person each from Argentina, Canada, France, Mexico, Portugal, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. Dfat had first confirmed consular support for the family of two Australians on Friday.

The collision happened when a Renfe service, run by the state operator, ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to Spanish company Iryo outside the central village of Urda, roughly 130km (80 miles) south of Madrid. An automatic safety system had failed, halting every train on a 63km stretch of track — but a control centre authorised the Renfe service to resume its journey while the other train was still sitting there.

It is Spain's second high-speed train collision this year, and it has renewed hard questions about rail safety in the country. A crash in the southern region of Andalusia in January killed 46 people. As forensic teams work through the dead — sometimes identifying victims from individual body parts — relatives are left with an agonising wait.

Labor MP Jason Clare told ABC TV on Thursday that accidents of this kind are something people never recover from. He said the whole country was in shock watching the images on its screens, calling it horrific.