LARISSA: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday (Mar 1) that a “tragic human error” was probably responsible for a train collision that left at least 38 dead in the country’s worst rail tragedy.
Two carriages were crushed and a third engulfed in fire when a passenger train and a freight train collided late on Tuesday near the central city of Larissa, on a route plagued by years of safety warnings.
The fire department added that 57 people were still hospitalised, six of them in intensive care, while several were missing.
“Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error,” Mitsotakis said in a televised address.
He called it a “terrible train accident without precedent” in Greece that would be “fully” investigated.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life,” said one rescue worker, emerging from the wreckage. “It’s tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies.”
The accident left a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass in a field.
In some cases, passengers are being identified from body parts, volunteer fireman Vassilis Iliopoulos told Skai TV, warning that the death toll would rise.
Seventeen biological samples have been collected from remains, and from 23 relatives seeking a match, the police said.
The passenger train, carrying more than 350 people, had been travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
“It was the train of terror,” Pavlos Aslanidis, whose son is missing along with a friend, told reporters.
Greece’s transport minister submitted his resignation just hours after the accident.
“When something so tragic happens, we cannot continue as if nothing had happened,” Kostas Karamanlis said in a public statement.
Protests were held Wednesday evening at the Thessaloniki rail station, the city of Larissa and outside the Athens offices of the railway’s Italian-owned operating company, Hellenic Train.
In Athens, riot police fired tear gas at protesters throwing rocks at the offices of Hellenic Train.
The company said it was working closely with authorities and has offered “financial support” to the passengers.
Source: CNA
