ATHENS: The fire department reported 26 fatalities and 85 injuries following a head-on collision between two trains late on Tuesday in Greece, though the circumstances of the incident remained a mystery.
The governor of the Thessaly region stated that a cargo train and a passenger train traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided outside the city of Larissa in central Greece.
Governor Konstantinos Agorastos stated to SKAI TV, "The collision was very strong," adding that the passenger train's first four carriages had derailed.
Agorastos stated that the first two carriages, which caught fire following the collision, were "almost completely destroyed."
Buses transported approximately 250 passengers safely to Thessaloniki. State broadcaster ERT reported that one passenger broke the train window with his suitcase to escape.
A young man who was taken to a bridge nearby was quoted by SKAI TV as saying, "There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming."
Another passenger, Angelos Tsiamouras, told ERT that "it was like an earthquake."
The footage that was shown by the broadcaster SKAI showed the road being littered with debris and derailed carriages with severely damaged windows and thick smoke plumes. In the carriages, rescue workers were seen searching for passengers who had become trapped with torches.
In a televised address, Vassilis Varthakogiannis, a spokesperson for the fire department, stated, "The evacuation of passengers is under way in very difficult conditions given the severity of the collision of the two trains."
State broadcaster ERT captured rescue workers using headlights to search the surrounding fields for survivors in the early hours of Wednesday.
The passenger train was carrying about 350 people, according to local media.
The cargo train was heading to Larissa from Thessaloniki.
