Rescuers delved Wednesday through flattened, burned-out carriages for survivors and bodies after a passenger train and a freight train crashed head-on in central Greece overnight, killing at least 36 people and injuring scores.
Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned Wednesday, saying he felt it was his “duty” to step down “as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.”
Stefanos Gogakos said it felt like an explosion, while from his rear carriage flames could be seen at the front of the train. Many of the 350 people aboard the passenger train were students returning from Greece’s raucous Carnival, officials said. This year was the first time the three-day festival, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
The government declared three days of national mourning from Wednesday, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels. Rescuer Lazaros Sarianidis told state broadcaster ERT that crews were “very carefully” trying to disentangle steel, sheet metal and other material that was twisted together by the crash. “It will take a long time,” said Sarianidis.
Greece’s firefighting service said some 66 people were hospitalized, including six in intensive care.
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