Protests erupt in Spain after train crash kills dozens

URDA, Spain — Spain began three days of mourning Thursday after at least 69 people were killed and dozens more injured in the country’s deadliest train crash in decades. But anger is mounting about the alleged incompetence that allowed the accident to happen and protesters clashed with police overnight outside the country’s transport ministry. Once considered one of the country’s crowning achievements, Spain’s high-speed rail network had not endured a deadly crash since it came into service over 30 years ago. After the second train accident in less than a year, the tragedy has deepened the feeling among many that there is something broken in Spanish society. The crash follows weeks of protests.

Rising costs and a housing shortage that is pricing many Spaniards out of the housing market, have already triggered massive and sometimes deadly protests across the country, and piled the pressure on the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. On Wednesday, four weeks before the country goes to the polls in a national election, Sanchez visited the site in the central province of Toledo where a quiet stretch of rail lined by olive groves had been turned into a scene of devastation. Pictures showed several carriages lying on their sides next to the tracks and others twisted at angles, their wheels sheared off. Debris was strewn around the scene