Death toll from train crash in Greece rises as rescue efforts continue
2023.03.01 12:47
Death toll from train crash in Greece rises as rescue efforts continue
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – In the country’s deadliest rail accident in recent memory, a passenger train and a cargo train collided head-on late on Tuesday, killing at least 36 people, many of whom were students. The collision threw entire carriages off the tracks.
The death toll was expected to rise even more, according to officials, as the temperature in one carriage reached 1,300 degrees Celsius after it caught fire.
A “nightmarish” crash that destroyed their train just before midnight near the central town of Larissa was described by passengers. After a long holiday weekend, it was traveling from Athens, the capital, to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
To escape the blaze, many kicked through windows, while others were thrown up to 40 meters upon impact.
Stergios Minenis, a passenger who was 28 years old and jumped to safety from the wreckage, reported, “There was panic… the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left.”
Skai TV heard this from another escapee from the fifth carriage: People were yelling and smashing windows; one of the windows gave way as a result of the impact of the other train’s iron.
As they tried to figure out why the two trains had been on the same track, police arrested a station master.
The smoldering, mangled mass of steel was searched by rescuers in the morning, and derailed carriages with blown-out windows were lifted by cranes.
According to Vassilis Varthakogiannis, a spokesperson for the fire department, the temperatures in the first carriage made it difficult to determine the precise number of people who perished or identify those who were trapped inside.
“The confirmed number of dead is 36, but the number is expected to be higher based on these facts and the findings from the scene of the tragedy.”
As the government declared three days of national mourning, half-masted flags were flown in Athens and Brussels in memory of the crash victims.
“This is an unimaginable tragedy. At the scene of the accident, looking distraught, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “Our thoughts today are with the relatives of the victims.”
Nikos Makris sat on a pavement outside the hospital in Larissa, where a lot of the crash’s victims had been taken. One of the first two carriages belonged to the sister of his wife.
She has vanished. He told Reuters, “We have been waiting here since 2 a.m.” We are currently awaiting a DNA test. He stated, “We will be fortunate to have a body to bury.”
Angry were the others. One victim’s relative yelled, ” This must be paid for by some scumbag.”
According to Apostolos Komnos, the head of the emergency department at Larissa Hospital, the majority of the deceased were young people in their 20s.
Kostas Karamanlis, the transport minister, handed in his resignation, claiming that he was taking responsibility for the state’s “long-standing failures” to fix a railway system that, according to him, was not up to date.
A police official stated that the local station master in charge of signaling has been arrested and charged with causing grievous bodily harm and mass deaths through negligence.
According to the official, the 59-year-old man denies any involvement in the accident and blames a possible technical glitch.
Giannis Oikonomou, a government spokesman, stated that prior to the accident, the two trains had been traveling in the same direction on the same track “for many kilometers.”
Greek railway workers’ union head Yiannis Ditsas told Skai television that automatic signaling had stopped working at the crash site. There was no official response at this time.
Hellenic Train data indicate that the cargo train had two crew members, while the passenger train had 342 passengers and 10 crew members.
Six of the injured are in intensive care, according to a fire department official. Six of the injured were taken to the hospital.
Thessaloniki was the destination of the evacuation for those survivors who did not require hospitalization. One woman rushed to embrace her daughter as she boarded a bus with other survivors.
The daughter stated, “Mum, don’t, I’m hurt.” Another waiter claimed that her child was not answering the phone.
The cargo train was heading to Larissa from Thessaloniki. According to local media, the train left Athens around 7:30 p.m. The fire department claimed to have been informed of the incident just before midnight.
As part of its international bailout program, Greece sold rail operator TRAINOSE to Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 with the expectation that hundreds of millions of euros would be invested in rail infrastructure.
The Italian company operates 342 passenger and commercial routes per day and is the primary provider of rail transportation for passengers and freight in Greece, according to its website.
