Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, resigned from his post and from frontline politics to try to save the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) campaign, badly damaged after the second fatal high-speed rail accident in nine months.

The crash in Toledo province killed 69 people and came just nine months after a similar accident on the same high-speed line; the earlier one, on the Madrid-Seville line, left 46 dead. Spain is holding a snap general election on November 29, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez running for re-election; he brought the date forward following a wave of social protest over housing affordability. Puente also announced that he is giving up the socialist candidacy in Valladolid.