EU prosecutors search Spanish offices in second fraud probe after Urda crash
Probe into possible misuse of EU funds for rail upgrades comes ahead of November 29 election
European Union prosecutors on Friday searched the headquarters of Spain’s state rail infrastructure manager Adif, the railway safety agency AESF and the Court of Auditors as part of a new investigation into possible fraud involving EU funds for safety and signalling upgrades on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line. The probe is the second opened this year into Spain’s railways; an earlier inquiry followed a crash that killed 46 people in January. The latest probe comes after a collision near Urda on October 28 that claimed 69 lives, one of Europe’s worst rail disasters this century.