No less than 32 individuals have been killed when a passenger prepare and a freight prepare collided in northern Greece, with an affect so intense that cranes have been getting used to take away wreckage within the seek for survivors, a Greek fireplace service official mentioned on Wednesday.
The reason for the crash, which occurred simply earlier than midnight on Tuesday close to the small city of Tempe, was not instantly clear. About 350 passengers have been on the prepare because it traveled north from Athens to Thessaloniki, in response to Hellenic Prepare, which operated the route.
Eighty-five individuals have been taken to hospitals with accidents, and 53 have been admitted, the Greek fireplace service mentioned in an announcement. With the restoration operation nonetheless underway, there have been fears that the dying toll would rise.
“Home windows have been shattering and other people have been screaming,” a younger man, who was not recognized, instructed a tv crew after surviving the crash. “There was panic within the carriage. An enormous chunk of steel from the opposite prepare had come by way of one of many home windows.”
A number of carriages derailed upon affect, and at the very least three caught fireplace. A spokeswoman for the Greek police, Constantina Dimoglidou, mentioned the method of figuring out the lifeless had begun at a hospital within the metropolis of Larissa, about 20 miles south of Tempe, asking relations of passengers to name a hotline for info.
Many of the victims have been younger, Greece’s well being minister, Thanos Plevris, instructed reporters exterior the hospital. “It’s a horrible course of for folks and relations,” he mentioned.
Vasileios Vathrakoyiannis, a spokesman for the fireplace service, mentioned at a televised briefing that the rescue operation was “presently focused on the 2 first carriages of the passenger prepare, which have overturned.” He mentioned 4 cranes have been getting used.
Tv footage confirmed pink cranes standing over the twisted, charred wreckage, as police and rescue staff in fluorescent jackets surveyed the scene.
“It is a horrible night time,” Kostas Agorastos, the governor of the Thessaly area, mentioned on tv. He mentioned two of the carriages “principally don’t exist anymore. Due to the energy of the affect they have been thrown into the air.”
The military was aiding with the rescue operation, and Greece’s minister for civil safety, Christos Stylianides, was coordinating the state’s response.
