ATHENS – At least 26 people have been killed and 85 injured in a train crash in central Greece. Around midnight local time a passenger train traveling between Athens and Thessaloniki with 350 passengers on board collided with a freighter near the city of Larissa. Three carriages derailed and one caught fire.
The rescues
Dozens of police officers and 40 firefighters participated in the rescue operations. About thirty ambulances were also on site. Two hospitals in the Larissa area have been requisitioned to accommodate the numerous wounded, 25 of whom are said to be in serious condition.
“We are proceeding in very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two convoys,” explained the fire brigade spokesman, Vassilis Varthakoyiannis.
“We experienced something very shocking. I’m not injured, but I’m stained with the blood of the other people who were injured next to me,” said one of the passengers interviewed by the Protothema newspaper.
The governor of the region, Konstantinos Agorastorunderlined that the clash between the two trains was “very strong”, so much so that the first two carriages of one of the trains were “almost completely” destroyed.