UPDATE: Death toll rises to 46 after high-speed trains collide in Toledo province

At least 46 people have been killed in a severe high-speed train collision between a Renfe AVE service and a private Iryo train in Toledo province on Wednesday morning.

Emergency services were called to the scene at 8.54am following a violent impact near the train station in Urda, located along the main high-speed corridor connecting Madrid and Andalucía.

The Castilla-La Mancha 112 emergency service confirmed that fire crews from Alcázar de San Juan and Orgaz, Civil Protection units from surrounding municipalities, and three medical helicopters have been deployed to search for survivors and attend to victims. Local authoritie have said there have been at least 39 fatalities.

Witnesses aboard the trains described scenes of chaos and devastation as the impact derailed multiple carriages.

Broadcaster Miguel Ángel Pérez Laguna, who was travelling in one of the rear carriages of the AVE service, told Capital Radio that the force of the crash was immense. "The impact was extremely violent," he said, describing how sections of the Iryo train's fuselage were thrown through the air across the tracks upon collision.

Railway infrastructure manager Adif has suspended all high-speed rail services between Madrid and the Andalusian cities of Seville, Malaga, and Cordoba indefinitely while rescue efforts continue on the ground.