MADRID — Spain’s transport minister handed in his resignation yesterday following a train crash that killed 69 people, one of the worst railway disasters in Europe this century and a blow for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ahead of a snap poll this month.

Oscar Puente, who had earlier pledged to work “tirelessly” to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network, also said he was withdrawing from the November 29 general election.

Last week’s crash, along with another disaster earlier this year, have overshadowed campaigning for the ballot, in which Sanchez is trailing in opinion polls.

“A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of such seriousness in less than a year, however different they may be, whether or not I bear direct responsibility,” Puente told members of parliament, referring to the latest tragedy and a January crash in Andalusia that claimed 46 lives.

“I made my decision about my future in the first few minutes after the tragedy, as soon as I learned about it,” he said.

“Today I am making that decision public, in the place where it is most appropriate to do so.”

Puente said he was withdrawing as a candidate in the November 29 snap polls.

Hours earlier, at a press conference during which he presented measures to improve safety, the minister had said the government would “work tirelessly to achieve and regain the public’s trust in high-speed rail”.

The right-wing opposition, which had demanded Puente’s resignation, and unions have criticised him for appearing to pin all the blame for the disaster on one control centre operator.

The accident happened when a train operated by the state-owned Renfe ploughed into the back of a stationary train belonging to the private Spanish company Iryo on Wednesday outside the village of Urda, around 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Madrid.