As is often the case in this kind of disaster, the results are only provisional and risk changing tragically. A collision between a freight train and a passenger train traveling between Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece, on Tuesday evening, February 28, left at least sixteen dead and dozens injured.
“At least sixteen people have been found dead so far,” a spokesperson for the Greek fire service told a press conference, adding that the rescue operation was still ongoing. He added that "85 people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals."
The spokesperson confirmed that three wagons derailed near Larissa, in the center of the country 350 km north of Athens, after a freight train collided with another convoy carrying 350 passengers. One of the wagons caught fire and several people became trapped, according to the public television channel Ert.
"Something very shocking"
On the Skai television channel, Kostas Agorastos, the governor of the region, said that "more than 250 passengers were transferred by bus to Thessaloniki". “Unfortunately the number of injured and dead is likely to be high,” he continued. A government crisis meeting was organised.
"We experienced something very shocking," said Lazos, a passenger interviewed by Protothema newspaper. "I am not injured but I am stained with the blood of other people who were injured next to me," he said.
The two hospitals in the Larissa region have been requisitioned to accommodate the many injured, according to local media Onlarissa.
