Time.news – At least 36 people died e 66 were hospitalized, six of them in intensive care, after the accident between a freight and a passenger train traveling between Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece. Rescue operations are still ongoing and the toll could get worse, firefighters have warned.
The wounded were transported to hospitals near the site of the disaster and 25 of them are in serious condition. It is about the “worst train accident Greece has ever seen“, say the Greek media.
Three wagons are derailed a few minutes before midnight in the city of Larissa (in the center of the country) following the collision between the freight train and another convoy carrying 350 passengers. About 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances attended the scene. Cranes were also employed to try to remove debris and lift overturned wagons.
“The operation to free the trapped people is ongoing and is taking place under difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains,” fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told a news conference. One of the carriages caught fire and several people were trapped inside. Kostas Agorastos, governor of the Region, explained that “more than 250 passengers were transferred by bus to Thessaloniki” and that “unfortunately the number of injured and dead will probably be high”.
On the incident was also held a government crisis meeting. Health Minister Thanos Plevris visited the scene, while Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos is overseeing the situation from the crisis management center with police and fire chiefs.
“The train was late and had stopped for a few minutes when we heard a deafening noise,” a tearful girl told local media website Onlarissa. “We experienced something very shocking. I’m not injured, but I’m covered in the blood of other people who were injured next to me,” another passenger, Lazos, told Protothema newspaper.