By COSTAS KANTOURIS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS (Associated Press)
TEMPE, Greece (AP) — Rescuers looked for survivors Wednesday within the mangled, burned-out wreckage of two trains that slammed into one another in northern Greece, killing a minimum of 38 individuals and crumpling carriages into twisted metal knots within the nation’s worst-ever rail crash.
The impression simply earlier than midnight Tuesday threw some passengers into ceilings and out the home windows as their prepare smashed head-on right into a freight prepare.
“The glass in the windows shattered and fell on top of us,” Stefanos Gogakos, who was driving in a rear carriage, advised state broadcaster ERT. “My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to as the crash “a horrific rail accident without precedent in our country,” and pledged a full, impartial investigation.
The prepare from Athens to Thessaloniki was carrying 350 passengers, a lot of them college students getting back from raucous Carnival celebrations. It was not instantly clear what induced the collision. While the monitor is double, each trains had been touring in reverse instructions on the identical line close to the Vale of Tempe, a river valley about 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens.
STATIONMASTER ARRESTED; MINISTER RESIGNS
Authorities arrested the stationmaster on the prepare’s final cease, within the metropolis of Larissa. They didn’t launch the person’s title or the explanation for the arrest, however the stationmaster is chargeable for rail visitors on that stretch of the tracks.
Transportation Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, saying he was stepping down “as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.”
Karamanlis mentioned he had made “every effort” to enhance a railway system that had been “in a state that doesn’t befit the 21st century.”
But, he added, “When something this tragic happens it’s impossible to continue as if nothing has happened.”
WRECKAGE MAKES RESCUE EFFORTS DIFFICULT
On Wednesday, rescuers turned to cranes and different heavy equipment to begin shifting giant items of the trains, revealing extra our bodies and dismembered stays. Many had been so badly disfigured that they required DNA identification.
“There were many big pieces of steel,” mentioned Vassilis Polyzos, a neighborhood resident who mentioned he was one of many first individuals on the scene. “The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight train.”
Rescuer Lazaros Sarianidis advised ERT that crews had been “very carefully” attempting to disentangle metal, sheet steel and different materials that was twisted collectively by the crash. “It will take a long time,” mentioned Sarianidis.
Greece’s firefighting service mentioned 57 individuals remained hospitalized late Wednesday, together with six in intensive care. More than 15 others had been discharged after receiving preliminary remedy.
More than 200 individuals who had been unhurt or suffered minor accidents had been taken by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to trace anybody who could also be lacking.
Eight rail workers had been amongst these killed within the crash, together with the 2 drivers of the freight prepare and the 2 drivers of the passenger prepare, based on Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas.
Emergency employees discovered a number of our bodies dozens of meters (toes) away from the vehicles, ERT reported.
PASSENGERS SAY TRAIN CRASH WAS LIKE AN EXPLOSION
A teenage survivor who didn’t give his title to reporters mentioned that simply earlier than the crash he felt sudden braking and noticed sparks — after which there was a sudden cease.
“Our carriage didn’t derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed,” he mentioned, visibly shaken. He used a bag to interrupt the window of his automobile, the fourth, and escape.
Gogakos mentioned the crash felt like an explosion, and a few smoke entered the carriage. He mentioned some passengers escaped via home windows however that after a couple of minutes, crew members had been in a position to open the doorways and let individuals out.
Multiple vehicles derailed and a minimum of one burst into flames.
“Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,372 Fahrenheit), which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it,” hearth service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakoyiannis mentioned.
A person who was attempting to determine the destiny of his daughter, who was on the prepare, saying he had a harrowing cellphone dialog along with her earlier than she was reduce off.
“She told me ‘we’re on fire. … My hair is burning,’” he advised ERT, with out giving his title.
GREECE GOES FROM CARNIVAL TO MOURNING
Many of the passengers had been college students returning to Thessaloniki from Carnival, however officers mentioned however no detailed passenger listing was accessible. This 12 months was the primary time the competition, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full because the begin of the pandemic in 2020.
The authorities declared three days of nationwide mourning from Wednesday, whereas flags flew at half-staff outdoors all European Commission buildings in Brussels.
Visiting the accident scene, Prime Minister Mitsotakis mentioned the federal government should assist the injured recuperate and determine the lifeless.
“I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all that’s in our power so that something like this never happens again,” Mitsotakis mentioned.
Tuesday’s was Greece’s worst rail crash since 1968, when 34 individuals had been killed in a crash within the southern Peloponnese area.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou broke off an official go to to Moldova to go to the scene, laying flowers beside the wreckage.
Pope Francis supplied his condolences to the households of the lifeless, in a message despatched to the president of the Greek bishops convention on his behalf by the Vatican’s secretary of state,
The pontiff “sends the assurance of his prayers to everyone affected by this tragedy,” the message mentioned.
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Paphitis reported from Athens, Greece. Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Patrick Quinn and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this story.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”