Spain transport minister offers resignation in wake of train accident

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente offered his resignation on Tuesday in the wake of one of Europe's worst rail disasters in recent memory last week that killed 69 people. The tragedy, Spain's second fatal rail collision in less than a year, has intensified scrutiny of railway safety and added political pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ahead of parliamentary elections on November 29.

"A transport ​minister ‌in a country like Spain cannot continue in ‌office with two accidents ‌of ​this severity in less than a year," he told lawmakers while announcing his intention to resign. Puente, member of Sanchez's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, also said he would withdraw his name from the list of parliamentary electioncandidates.

He did not specify when he would leave ​his post. Puente's political opponents had demanded he step down, while train unions had been unhappy with him for appearing to pin blame for the disaster on one rail control center operator.