Emergency workers scrambled Wednesday to find survivors among the burned wreckage after two trains collided nearby the Greek city of Larissa, leaving at least 32 people dead and another 85 injured, according to authorities.
Just before midnight on Tuesday, a passenger train and a freight train collided, causing several carriages to be nearly completely demolished and at least one car to appear to catch fire and entrap occupants.
One rescuer came out of the rubble and exclaimed, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life.” “It’s sad. After five hours, we start discovering bodies.
Many vehicles erupted in smoke and flames, some of which had rolled over after being knocked off the rails during the collision, leaving a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass in their wake.
The 350-person passenger train was making its way from Athens, the country’s capital, to Thessaloniki, a city in northern Greece.
Thessaloniki following a lengthy vacation weekend, according to Greek media, had been receiving a large influx of students.
“What a nightmare… I’m still trembling, said passenger Angelos, 22, speaking to AFP.
“Thank goodness we were in the penultimate car and we survived. The first cars caught fire, causing total panic.”
“The collision resembled a massive earthquake.”
According to Greek emergency services, 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were deployed for the response.
According to spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, “the operation to liberate trapped persons is underway and is taking place in difficult conditions, due to the intensity of the collision between the two trains.”
He claimed that 32 individuals have been found dead, while 53 of the injured were in the hospital.
But, as cranes and rescuers waded through the wreckage, the death toll was anticipated to increase.
A passenger by the name of Lazos claimed to the journal Protothema, “I was stained with blood from other persons who were hurt near me.”
The cause of the collision between the two trains, which the local media is describing as the worst “train accident Greece has ever known,” is still unknown.
According to regional governor Kostas Agorastos, “the death toll is probably going to be quite high.”
The first two passenger train cars, according to him, “no longer exist at all.”
The train “was stalled for a few minutes when we heard a thunderous explosion,” a young woman sobbed on the local news website Onlarissa.
Another traveler said that “the windows abruptly erupted” to Skai television. They were terrified and yelling.
“Thankfully, we were able to unlock the doors and make our getaway rather swiftly. They were unable to exit certain wagons, and one of them even caught fire, he continued.
The two trains ended up on the same track and collided head-on, according to Kostas Genidounias, president of the OSE train drivers’ union, who spoke to AFP at the scene of the disaster.
The catastrophe, he claimed, was “unimaginable” and “would have been prevented if the safety mechanisms were functioning.”
After the crash, a special government meeting was called. While Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos oversaw the response from a crisis management center, Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris headed to the scene.
According to the fire services, the two hospitals close to Larissa have been requisitioned to handle the large number of casualties, and military hospitals in Thessaloniki and Athens are also “on alert” in case they are required.