09:47, 1 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. At least 32 people have died and dozens more injured after two trains collided in northern Greece, BBC reported citing local emergency services.

The passenger train had been travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki when it crashed head-on with the other train, leading to a fire in at least one of the carriages.

A representative of the Greek fire service, Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, confirmed 32 fatalities, in addition to some 85 injured. At least 25 of those injured are said to be in “serious condition,” according to the Greek broadcaster ERT News.

Thirty ambulances reportedly rushed to the scene to treat the victims, with multiple hospitals in nearby Larissa now operating on an “emergency basis,” local reports added. Fire crews battled a blaze that erupted in some cars, while the police and military have also mobilized rescue teams, RT reported. 

The cause of the crash is not known.

“It was a very powerful collision. This is a terrible night… It’s hard to describe the scene,” RT quoted Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of Greece’s Thessaly region as saying.  Agorastos added that around 250 survivors had been evacuated to Thessaloniki on buses.

One survivor described how the carriage he was in was engulfed in flames as it rolled over following the crash.

"We heard a big bang," passenger Stergios Minenis was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"It was a nightmarish 10 seconds. We were turning over in the carriage until we fell on our sides and until the commotion stopped. Then there was panic. Cables, fire. The fire was immediate. As we were turning over we were being burned. Fire was right and left," Minenis said.

"For 10, 15 seconds it was chaos. Tumbling over, fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming, people trapped."