Shock of rail tragedy gives way to sorrow and outrage in politically divided Spain

The chaos and horror of Spain's second rail tragedy this year has been conveyed vividly by survivors of Wednesday's high-speed crash that has left at least 69 people dead.

But as Spain holds three days of mourning, revelations from leaked audio recordings of the apparent human error in a control room in the minutes before this disaster happened have given way to public disbelief and outrage, in a highly politicised climate, exactly a month before Spaniards go to the polls.

"You don't know what's happening, you don't know what has happened, you just know that you're being thrown around in a matter of seconds," said Iñaki García, 60.