Greek Prime Minister Kiryakos Mitsotakis said the train crash, which killed 43 people on Tuesday evening, was caused by “a tragic human error”
There were around 350 passengers on the passenger train, which collided with a freight train near the city of Larisa.
After the accident, Greek Transport Minister Costas Karamanlis presented his resignation and said, “When such a tragic event has taken place, it is impossible to continue as if nothing had happened.”
In a written statement, he stated that he had resigned from his post and that “this was the least he could do to honor the memory of the victims.” Karamanlis also stressed that the state takes responsibility for its “long-standing” mistakes.
It is thought that there are many students returning from vacation among the passengers.
“The collision was very severe. The first four wagons of the passenger train derailed. Two of the wagons became unrecognizable due to the fire,” said Tessali Regional Governor Konstantinos Agorastos.
Agorastos said that before the collision, both trains were traveling at high speed and the drivers were unaware of each other.
STATION MASTER ARRESTED
A large number of ambulances and firefighters were dispatched to the area.
After the collision, it was announced that 194 passengers were rescued and taken to Thessaloniki. Three days of mourning was declared in the country.
Police said that the Station Chief in Larisa was arrested on charges of negligently causing death.
The 59-year-old chief in charge of signals denied the accusations and said the accident could have been caused by a possible technical error.
One person rescued from the train told Reuters: “We had a great panic, everyone in the car was screaming. “We were shaken for 10-15 seconds, the windows were broken, we were leaning on the side, the cables were hanging and the fire broke out,” he said.
Another passenger said, “It was like an earthquake.”
The survivors described “a nightmarish 10 seconds” as the wagons went off the road and burst into flames.
28-year-old passenger Stergios Minenis said: “We heard a big explosion. The wagon rolled over and tilted on its side. There was panic. Cables, flames. Immediately fire broke out. While we were doing somersaults, we were on fire. There was fire on our right and on our left. There was chaos for 10-15 seconds. People screamed. was throwing,” he said.
Greek railway unions, on the other hand, stated that this accident revealed the chronic problems of the railways, among these problems were inadequate functioning, problematic signaling and obsolete infrastructure.
Speaking to Greek state television, a rescue worker stated that the teams were working all night and said, “We are pulling people out of the wreckage. There are wounded and dead. We are experiencing a tragedy.”
A volunteer told the AFP agency, “I have never seen anything like this in my life. It is very tragic. Five hours have passed since the collision, and we are still finding the lifeless bodies of people.”
Larisa Municipality announced that since some corpses are unrecognizable, their identities will be determined by genetic testing.
A hospital in Larisa also announced that the relatives of the passengers on the train began to give DNA samples.