Spain opens probe after copper theft halts dozens of high-speed trains

The disruption took place on a busy day as travellers were returning home after a long weekend in Madrid and before the start on Tuesday of a week-long annual fair in the southern city of Seville, a major tourist draw.

It came a week after a blackout in Spain and neighbouring Portugal also brought trains to a halt on the Spanish high-speed rail network, the second longest in the world after China's. No firm cause for the outage has yet emerged.

The transport ministry said the cable theft took place on Sunday in the central province of Toledo at five points within a few kilometres of each other on the high-speed line linking Madrid and Seville.

The theft disrupted travel between Madrid, Seville, Malaga, Valencia and the southern city of Granada, affecting more than 10,000 passengers and at least 30 trains.

Service was gradually returning to normal on Monday.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the cable theft a "serious act of sabotage" in a post on X.

"It was quite a coordinated action. Whoever did it knew what they were going for," he added.

Spain's Civil Guard police force has opened a probe into the "theft of copper cabling" to "clarify what happened and identify those responsible", the interior ministry said on social media.

The price of copper has soared in recent years, triggering thefts of cables that use the metal in train and telecommunications networks around the world.

The head of Spain's main opposition Popular Party, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said images of "thousands of Spaniards trapped on trains" without water were "unbecoming of the fourth largest economy in the eurozone".