At least 26 dead in Greece train crash

As a spokesman for the fire service also said on state television, 85 people were injured when a freight train collided with a passenger train, some of them seriously. “The search and rescue operation is ongoing. Even with heavy equipment,” said the spokesman. According to state television, there were 350 travelers and 20 railway workers on board the trains.

No details are available from official sources about the circumstances of the accident. According to initial information from railway employees, a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train coming from the opposite direction. The first three carriages of the passenger train were destroyed, according to eyewitnesses.

Fire after collision

Greek television showed videos from the scene of the accident at Tempi in central Greece. Firefighters and rescue workers tried to find survivors in the rubble. “Most of the injured have head injuries, broken pelvis, arms and legs. Unfortunately, countless people are still in the rubble,” a member of a rescue team told reporters at the scene.

A survivor said a fire broke out in the passenger train after the collision. “There was chaos and a hell of a noise,” he added on state television. “We smashed the windows with our suitcases and got out of our car in the dark,” said one young man. The train had departed Athens and was heading for the Greek port of Thessaloniki, other survivors said on television.

The route, which connects Athens with the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki, has been modernized in recent years. The Hellenic Railways (Hellenic Train) is operated by the Italian state railway Ferroviaria dello Stato Italiano (FS). Railway workers told Greek broadcaster Real FM that despite the modernization there were serious problems with the electrical coordination of traffic control.

(SDA)

Source: Blick