Protesters demanding Spanish transport minister's resignation clash with police in Madrid

Riot police used batons and pepper spray to break up a protest outside Spain's Transport Ministry in Madrid, where more than 1,000 people demanded the resignation of Transport Minister Óscar Puente after a high-speed train collision killed 68 people. Puente has ruled out stepping down.

Spanish riot police used batons, pepper spray and tear gas on Wednesday night to disperse protesters outside the Transport Ministry in Madrid, where crowds demanded the resignation of Transport Minister Óscar Puente after a high-speed train collision that killed 68 people.

Crowd chants against Puente and Sánchez

More than 1,000 people gathered near the ministry in the Nuevos Ministerios area, according to Europa Press. Protesters chanted "Not one more death on our tracks" and "Óscar Puente, minister of death," and also shouted slogans against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The protest was called by a union and youth groups, and members of the far-right Vox party took part.

Police charged at the crowd around 8:30 p.m. local time after flares and objects were thrown at officers. Smoke drifted into nearby businesses, containers were pushed over and a parked car's windshield was damaged as a police helicopter circled overhead. The protest was broken up around 9:30 p.m., Europa Press reported.

Minister refuses to resign

Puente has ruled out resigning. He said an LZB signaling incident around 8:30 a.m. affected about 63 kilometers of track and caused communication failures in several computers, after which the control center of infrastructure operator Adif took over traffic management and authorized a train to resume moving. "We are absolutely devastated," he said.

The CSIF public employees union called for Puente to step down, accusing him of turning an Adif traffic official into a scapegoat while the investigation had only just begun. Vox has filed a criminal complaint against Adif officials for reckless homicide.

Second deadly crash this year

The collision near Urda, in Toledo province, occurred when Renfe's AVE train rear-ended an Iryo train that had stopped on the Madrid-Seville line. Spain is observing three days of national mourning through Oct. 31. It was the country's second deadly high-speed rail crash this year, after a January accident near Adamuz killed 45 people.