At least 36 killed, dozens injured in Greece train collision

At least 36 people have been killed and dozens injured after a head-on collision between two trains in Greece, local authorities said.

The crash took place outside the central city of Larissa late on Tuesday when a passenger train heading from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided with a cargo train travelling from Thessaloniki.

Some of the passenger carriages exploded in flames from the impact.

“We heard a big bang, (it was) 10 nightmarish seconds,” said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety from the wreckage.

“We were turning over in the wagon until we fell on our sides…then there was panic, cables (everywhere) fire, the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left.”

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ office announced a three-day national mourning period, adding that Mitsotakis was on his way to the site of the accident.

Meanwhile, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said she was cutting short a visit to Moldova to return to Greece.

“Unfortunately, I have to interrupt my visit in order to be close to my people, to support those who need it,” she told a joint news conference in the Moldovan capital Chisinau with Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

Thessaly regional governor Konstantinos Agorastos told SKAI TV that the first four carriages of the passenger train were derailed in the crash, with the first two carriages, which caught fire, “almost completely destroyed”.

He said the two trains hurtled towards each other on the same track.

“They were travelling at great speed and one (driver) didn’t know the other was coming,” the governor said.

SKAI showed footage of derailed carriages with cargo containers flipped over and crash debris strewn across a nearby road. Rescue workers with high-powered torches were searching through the wreckage for trapped passengers. Some were scouring the surrounding fields for survivors.

“We are living through a tragedy. We are pulling out people alive, injured…there are dead. We are going to be here all night, until we finish, until we find the last person,” a volunteer rescue worker told the ERT public broadcaster.

Agorastos said about 250 passengers, some with minor injuries, had been evacuated safely by bus to Thessaloniki about 130 kilometres (80 miles) away.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life. It’s tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies,” an exhausted rescuer said as he emerged from a carriage.

Hospital units used to treat burn victims in the area had been alerted and dozens of ambulances dispatched to the scene.

“There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming,” a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge told SKAI TV.

A passenger named Lazos told the newspaper Protothema that the experience had been “very shocking”.

“I wasn’t hurt but I was stained with blood from other people who were hurt near me,” he said.

Rail operator Hellenic Train reported about 350 people had been on the train, which left Athens at about 7.30pm (17:30 GMT). The fire brigade said it was informed of the accident shortly before midnight.

An emergency government meeting was organised after the crash and Greek health minister Thanos Plevris has gone to the scene.

Greece sold railway operator TRAINOSE to Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 as part of its international bailout programme, in the expectation that hundreds of millions of euros would be invested in rail infrastructure.