Rail accident is the deadliest in the country in decades and came to throw entire cars off the tracks
A passenger train and a freight train collided head-on in the Greece on Tuesday night, the 28th, leaving at least 36 dead and 85 injured, in the country’s deadliest rail accident in decades, which threw entire cars off the tracks. 66 injured were hospitalized, six of whom are in intensive care, a firefighter said. About 250 passengers out of a total of 350 were safely evacuated to Thessaloniki by bus. The accident occurred when the passenger train exited a tunnel. Derailed carriages, badly damaged with broken windows and thick clouds of smoke, could be seen at the scene, where rescue teams were looking for more survivors. One passenger car lay on its side nearly ninety degrees from the rest of the wrecked train, with other derailed cars leaning precariously.
Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who saved himself from the wreckage, said the crash was a “nightmare” with a loud bang followed by fire: “We were turning in the wagon until we landed on its side… there was panic,” he said. “The fire was immediate, while we were turning we were being burned, the fire was right and left”. One of the carriages caught fire and several people were trapped, according to public television channel Ert. The government organized a crisis meeting after the event.
*With information from Reuters and AFP
Source: Jovempan
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