Authorities reported that two trains collided head-on near the Greek city of Larissa, resulting in at least 36 fatalities and 66 injuries. On Wednesday, rescue workers rushed to locate any survivors among the charred debris.
Just before midnight on Tuesday, a passenger train and a freight train collided, causing several carriages to be nearly entirely destroyed and at least one car to appear to catch fire and entrap passengers.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life,” said one rescue worker, emerging from the wreckage. “It’s tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies.”
A tangled mess of metal and shattered glass was left behind by several vehicles that had turned over or caught fire when they came off the tracks in the collision.
The 350-person passenger train was making its way from Athens, the country’s capital, to Thessaloniki, a community in northern Greece.
According to Thanos Plevris, minister of health, the majority of passengers were “young people,” with many students riding the train back to Thessaloniki from a lengthy holiday weekend.
“It was a nightmare… I’m still shaking,” 22-year-old passenger Angelos told AFP.
“Fortunately we were in the penultimate car and we got out alive. There was a fire in the first cars and complete panic.”
“The collision was like a huge earthquake.”
“I was stained with blood from other people who were injured near me,” a passenger named Lazos told the newspaper Protothema.
Some 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were mobilised for the response, according to Greek emergency services.
“The operation to free trapped people is under way and is taking place in difficult conditions, due to the seriousness of the collision between the two trains,” spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told reporters.
He later said that 36 people have been found dead, while 66 injured were in hospital, including six people in intensive care.
Some 194 people have been rescued so far.
