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LARISSA, Greece: A head-on collision between two trains in Greece killed 36 folks, with many extra nonetheless lacking on Wednesday after the accident on a route suffering from years of security warnings. In Greece’s worst practice tragedy in a long time, two carriages have been crushed and a 3rd engulfed in hearth when a passenger practice and freight practice collided within the central metropolis of Larissa.
At the least 85 folks have been injured within the accident, which left a tangled mess of steel and shattered glass in a subject. Six of them are in intensive care. “I’ve by no means seen something like this in my whole life,” mentioned one rescue employee, rising from the wreckage. “It’s tragic. 5 hours later, we’re discovering our bodies.” In some instances, passengers are being recognized from physique components, volunteer fireman Vassilis Iliopoulos informed Skai TV, warning that the demise toll would rise.
“It was the practice of terror,” Pavlos Aslanidis, whose son is lacking together with a buddy, informed reporters. Greece’s transport minister submitted his resignation simply hours after the accident. “When one thing so tragic occurs, we can not proceed as if nothing had occurred,” Kostas Karamanlis mentioned in a public assertion.
The passenger practice, carrying over 350 folks, had been travelling from the capital Athens to the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki. The 59-year-old station grasp of Larissa was arrested a number of hours after the accident and charged with negligent murder. Authorities spokesman Yiannis Economou mentioned the 2 trains have been left working on the identical monitor for “a number of kilometers”.
However practice unionists mentioned the station grasp was possible a scapegoat as the protection shortcomings of the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line had been recognized for years. In an open letter in February, practice workers mentioned monitor security methods have been incomplete and poorly maintained. A security supervisor had resigned final 12 months, warning that infrastructure upgrades pending since 2016 have been incomplete and that practice speeds of as much as 200 km an hour have been unsafe.
“We are going to do no matter we are able to in order that nothing like this ever occurs once more,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was anticipated to announce an early election date subsequent week, mentioned on the scene. Well being Minister Thanos Plevris mentioned most passengers have been “younger folks”, with the practice carrying many college students returning to Thessaloniki after a protracted vacation weekend.
“It was a nightmare… I’m nonetheless shaking,” 22-year-old passenger Angelos informed AFP. “Thankfully we have been within the penultimate automobile and we obtained out alive. There was a hearth within the first vehicles and full panic. The collision was like an enormous earthquake.” “I used to be stained with blood from different individuals who have been injured close to me,” a passenger named Lazos informed the newspaper Proto Thema.
Some 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances have been mobilized for the response, based on Greek emergency companies. Crews have been nonetheless struggling to elevate one of many smashed carriages, mendacity on its aspect, to allow a search inside, Iliopoulos mentioned. “My ideas are with the folks in Greece this morning,” tweeted the pinnacle of the European Council, Charles Michel. “Shocked by the information and pictures of the collision of the 2 trains,” he added. Neighboring Albania, Italy, Serbia and Turkey have been amongst states to ship condolences, as did France, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the Vatican. Nicosia mentioned two Cypriots have been among the many lacking.
On the native media web site Onlarissa, a younger girl mentioned that the practice “was stopped for a couple of minutes once we heard a deafening noise”. One other passenger informed Skai TV that “the home windows all of the sudden exploded. Folks have been screaming.” “Thankfully, we have been in a position to open the doorways and escape pretty rapidly. In different wagons, they didn’t handle to get out, and one wagon even caught hearth,” he added.
The president of the practice drivers’ union Kostas Genidounias informed AFP from the scene that the accident “would have been averted if the protection methods have been working”. An emergency authorities assembly was organized after the crash and navy hospitals in Thessaloniki and Athens have been placed on standby. Authorities have declared three days of nationwide mourning. – AFP
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