Two trains collided head-on in Greece this Tuesday, February 28 at night and left a balance of 26 dead and at least 85 injuredas announced by the fire brigade, while the circumstances of the accident remain unclear.
And passenger train traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided with a cargo train on the outskirts of the city of Larissa, in central Greece, said the governor of the Thessaly region.
“The collision was very strong“, Governor Konstantinos Agorastos assured SKAI TV, adding that the first four carriages of the passenger train derailed.
Los first two carriages, which caught fire after the collision, they were “almost completely destroyed,” Agorastos added.
Some 250 people were evacuated after the brutal collision of two trains
About 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki by buses. A passenger told state broadcaster ERT that he managed to escape after breaking the train window with his suitcase.
“There was panic in the car, people were screaming“, a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge revealed to SKAI TV. “It was like an earthquake,” Angelos Tsiamouras, another passenger, added to ERT.
The station SKAI showed images of Derailed wagons, severely damaged with broken windows and thick plumes of smoke, as well as debris strewn across the road. Rescue teams were seen carrying torches in wagons searching for trapped passengers.
“The evacuation of passengers is underway in very difficult conditions given the seriousness of the collision of the two trains,” fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said in a televised address.
In the early hours of Wednesday, footage from state broadcaster ERT showed rescuers with headlights searching the surrounding fields for survivors.
Local media reported that some 350 people were traveling on the passenger train. The freight train had been traveling from Thessaloniki to Larissa.
ED
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