The UAE expressed its sincere condolences and solidarity with friendly Greece for the victims of the collision of two trains in the city of Larissa, in the center of the country, where at least 36 people were killed and 85 injured Tuesday evening in the accident, according to relief teams, yesterday, while the Greek government declared three days of mourning.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the government and friendly people of the Republic of Greece, and to the families of the victims in this painful calamity, and its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.
A Greek police source told Agence France-Presse that the director of the Larissa station in the center of the country, a town not far from the scene of the accident, was arrested yesterday.
Government spokesman Yannis Oikonomu said that the two trains, for an unknown reason, were traveling on the same track “several kilometers”.
“The death toll has now risen to 36,” Vassilis Vathrakoyannis, a spokesman for the fire brigade, told reporters, adding that operations were still underway to remove the passengers who were still stuck in the damaged vehicles.
He explained that “66 people were transferred to hospitals, including six in intensive care,” while the previous toll spoke of 85 wounded.
The passenger train was making a trip between the capital, Athens, and the city of Thessaloniki in the north-east of the country, while the freight train was making the same trip in the opposite direction.
The head of the union of train drivers, Kostas Genidonias, who went to the scene of the tragedy, denounced the lack of safety systems on this line that connects the two main cities in Greece.
He said, “The two trains were on the same track, and there was a head-on collision. No operation of a security system, remote control or traffic lights. This terrible accident might have been avoided if the safety systems had been working.
The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, went to the site of the accident, while three days of mourning were declared in Greece.
“Our priority now is to treat the injured, to search for the missing among the wreckage, and to provide psychological support to the relatives of the victims by psychologists heading to the city of Larissa,” said government spokesman Yiannis Okonomo.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou cut short her visit to Moldova to return home following the accident.
In the early morning hours, images showed charred vehicles amid sheet metal and shattered windows. Other less damaged vehicles overturned, while rescuers used ladders to extract survivors from the wreckage.
The two trains collided at the exit of a small tunnel over which a motorway runs between the two main cities of Greece.
Greek media reported that the disaster was “the worst railway accident Greece has ever seen”.
“The work of the fire and rescue teams is very difficult, as they are looking for the charred bodies,” said the head of the Doctors’ Union, Larissa Konstantinos Yanakopoulos, on the public broadcaster ART.
Two huge cranes are being used at the site to remove the debris and lift the overturned vehicles.
“We felt the impact like a violent earthquake,” a passenger named Angelos, 22, told AFP at the scene.
“Fortunately, we were in the penultimate vehicle, and we survived. A fire broke out in the front carriages, and panic ensued. I had a nightmare, and I’m still shaking.”
A spokesman for the fire brigade said that several vehicles derailed before midnight on Tuesday, north of the city of Larissa, at the level of the Tambeh Valley, following a freight train collided with another carrying 350 passengers.
“Most of the passengers were young people,” said Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris. Several students were on the train on their way back to Thessaloniki, following a long weekend.
