The stationmaster in the city of Larissa was arrested, Greek police said Wednesday, following a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train outside a nearby town that flattened carriages, killed at least 36 people and injured some 85.
Debris of trains lie on the rail lines after a collision in Tempe, about 376 kilometres north of Athens, near Larissa city, Greece, on March 1, 2023.
It’s unclear at what speed the passenger train and the freight train were travelling when they ran into each other just before midnight Tuesday, but survivors said the impact threw several passengers through the windows of train cars. State broadcaster ERT quoted rescuers saying they found some victims’ bodies 30-40 meters from the impact site.
“The glass in the windows shattered and fell on top of us,” he told ERT. “My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt. Some people started to climb out through the windows because there was smoke in the carriage. The doors were closed but in a few minutes train staff opened them and we got out.”“Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius , which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it,” fire service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.
More than 200 people who were unharmed or suffered minor injuries were taken by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing. “I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all that’s in our power so that something like this never happens again,” Mitsotakis said.
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