By COSTAS KANTOURIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS (Associated Press)
TEMPE, Greece (AP) — Greece’s transport minister has resigned after a prepare crash that killed a minimum of 36 folks and injured scores.
Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis mentioned he felt it was his “duty” to step down “as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows beneath.
TEMPE, Greece (AP) — Rescuers delved Wednesday via flattened, burned-out carriages for survivors and our bodies after a passenger prepare and a freight prepare crashed head-on in central Greece in a single day, killing a minimum of 36 folks and injuring scores.
The reason behind the crash close to the Vale of Tempe, about 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens, was not instantly clear, however the stationmaster within the close by metropolis of Larissa was arrested Wednesday. The police didn’t launch his identify. Another two folks have been detained for questioning.
It’s unclear at what velocity the 2 trains had been travelling after they bumped into one another simply earlier than midnight Tuesday, however state broadcaster ERT mentioned it was greater than 140 kilometers per hour (87 miles per hour).
Survivors mentioned the influence threw a number of passengers via the home windows of prepare automobiles. ERT quoted rescuers saying they discovered some victims’ our bodies 30-40 meters (100-130 toes) from the influence website.
Stefanos Gogakos mentioned it felt like an explosion, whereas from his rear carriage flames may very well be seen on the entrance of the prepare.
“The glass in the windows shattered and fell on top of us,” he instructed ERT. “My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt. Some people started to climb out through the windows because there was smoke in the carriage. The doors were closed but in a few minutes train staff opened them and we got out.”
Multiple automobiles derailed and a minimum of three burst into flames. On Wednesday, one carriage lay atop the crumpled stays of one other two.
“Temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius (2,372 Fahrenheit), which makes it even more difficult to identify the people who were in it,” fireplace service spokesperson Vassilis Varthakoyiannis mentioned.
Many of the 350 folks aboard the passenger prepare had been college students coming back from Greece’s raucous Carnival, officers mentioned. This yr was the primary time the three-day competition, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full because the begin of the pandemic in 2020.
Visiting the accident scene, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis mentioned that the federal government should assist the injured get well and determine the useless.
“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.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou broke off an official go to to Moldova to go to the scene, laying flowers beside the wreckage.
The authorities declared three days of nationwide mourning from Wednesday, whereas flags flew at half-staff outdoors all European Commission buildings in Brussels.
Pope Francis provided his condolences to the households of the useless, 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.
On Wednesday, rescuers turned to cranes and different heavy equipment to start out shifting massive items of the trains, revealing extra our bodies and dismembered stays. Officials mentioned the military had been contacted to help.
Rescuer Lazaros Sarianidis instructed state broadcaster ERT that crews had been “very carefully” making an attempt to disentangle metal, sheet metallic and different materials that was twisted collectively by the crash. “It will take a long time,” mentioned Sarianidis.
Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly space, instructed Greece’s Skai Television that the 2 trains collided head on at excessive velocity.
“Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed,” he mentioned.
The trains crashed simply earlier than the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the areas of Thessaly and Macedonia.
“There were many big pieces of steel,” mentioned Vassilis Polyzos, a neighborhood resident who mentioned he was one of many first folks on the scene. “The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.”
He mentioned dazed and disoriented folks had been escaping out of the prepare’s rear automobiles as he arrived.
“People, naturally, were scared — very scared,” he mentioned. “They were looking around, searching; they didn’t know where they were.”
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, in accordance with Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas.
Greece’s firefighting service mentioned some 66 folks had been hospitalized, together with six in intensive care.
More than 200 individuals who had been unhurt within the crash or suffered minor accidents had been transported 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.
Barely in a position to maintain again tears, Greece’s Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis instructed reporters on the crash website that authorities would examine “in all seriousness and complete transparency” the causes of the crash.
“We will do everything to investigate the causes and won’t leave anything to be swept under the carpet,” Karamanlis mentioned.
A teenage survivor who didn’t give his identify to reporters mentioned that simply earlier than the crash he felt a powerful braking and noticed sparks — then there was a sudden cease.
“Our carriage didn’t derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed,” he mentioned, visibly shaken.
He added that the primary automotive caught fireplace and that he used a bag to interrupt the window of his automotive, the fourth, and escape.
Rail operator Hellenic Train mentioned the northbound passenger prepare to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest metropolis, had about 350 passengers on board.
Hellenic Train is operated by Italy’s FS Group, which runs rail providers in a number of European nations.
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Patrick Quinn and David Rising contributed to this story from Bangkok. Gatopoulos reported from Athens.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”