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 at the least 43 individuals and crumpling carriages into twisted metal knots within the nation’s deadliest rail crash on document.
The affect simply earlier than midnight Tuesday threw some passengers into ceilings and out the home windows.
“My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt,” Stefanos Gogakos, who was in a rear automotive, informed state broadcaster ERT. He stated home windows shattered, showering riders with glass.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to as the collision of the passenger prepare and a freight prepare “a horrific rail accident without precedent in our country,” and pledged a full, impartial investigation.
He stated it seems the crash was “mainly due to a tragic human error.”
The prepare from Athens to Thessaloniki was carrying 350 passengers, lots of them college students coming back from raucous Carnival celebrations. While the monitor is double, each trains have 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 liable 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 stated 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 start out shifting giant items of the trains, revealing extra our bodies and dismembered stays.
Larissa’s chief coroner, Roubini Leondari, stated to this point 43 our bodies had been dropped at her for examination, and would require DNA identification as they have been largely disfigured.
“Most (of the bodies) are young people,” she informed ERT. “They are in very bad condition.”
Vassilis Polyzos, a neighborhood resident who stated he was one of many first individuals on the scene, stated each trains “were completely destroyed.”
“There were many big pieces of steel,” he stated.
Rescuer Lazaros Sarianidis informed ERT that crews have been “very carefully” attempting to disentangle metal, sheet metallic and different materials that was twisted collectively by the crash. “It will take a long time,” stated Sarianidis.
Greece’s firefighting service stated 57 individuals remained hospitalized late Wednesday, together with six in intensive care. More than 15 others have been discharged after receiving preliminary therapy.
More than 200 individuals who have been unhurt or suffered minor accidents have 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 staff have 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 staff discovered a number of our bodies dozens of meters (toes) away from the automobiles, ERT reported.
PASSENGERS SAY TRAIN CRASH WAS LIKE AN EXPLOSION
A teenage survivor who didn’t give his title to reporters stated 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 stated, visibly shaken. He used a bag to interrupt the window of his automotive, the fourth, and escape.
Gogakos stated the crash felt like an explosion, and a few smoke entered the carriage. He stated some passengers escaped by home windows however that after a couple of minutes, crew members have been in a position to open the doorways and let individuals out.
Multiple automobiles derailed and at the least 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 stated.
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 informed ERT, with out giving his title.
GREECE GOES FROM CARNIVAL TO MOURNING
Many of the passengers have been college students returning to Thessaloniki from Carnival, however officers stated however no detailed passenger checklist was out there. This 12 months was the primary time the pageant, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full for the reason that 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 stated the federal government should assist the injured get well 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 stated.
Tuesday’s was Greece’s worst rail crash since 1968, when 34 individuals have 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 stated.
Condolences poured in from everywhere in the world, together with neighboring Turkey, Greece’s historic regional rival. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his sorrow and his needs for a speedy restoration for these injured, a press release from his workplace stated.
Despite the frosty relations between the 2 NATO nations, Greece’s management had referred to as Erdogan final month following an enormous earthquake that killed tens of 1000’s in Turkey final month.
In Athens, a number of hundred members of left-wing teams marched late Wednesday to protest the prepare deaths. Minor clashes broke out as some protesters threw stones on the workplaces of Greece’s rail operator and riot police, and set dumpsters on hearth. No arrests or accidents have been reported.
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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”