Greece: At least 26 people were killed and more than 85 injured when two trains collided in northern Greece, the Greek Fire Service said Wednesday.
Images on Greece’s state-owned public broadcaster ERT showed smoke pouring out of toppled train cars and long lines of rescue vehicles next to them. The images also showed rescue workers with torches searching carriages for survivors.
Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said in a televised briefing that a passenger train carrying more than 350 people had collided with a freight train on Tuesday evening, shortly before midnight local time, in the area of Tempi, central Greece, near the city of Larissa.
At least 150 firefighters with 17 vehicles and 20 ambulances are involved in the rescue operation, according to Varthakogiannis.
The passenger train was traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki, Varthakogiannis said.
Ioannis Artopoios, a spokesman for the Greek Fire Service, told Greek TV on Wednesday that search and rescue operations are underway and that the number of dead is expected to rise.
The Greek railway company, Hellenic Train, said in a press release that there was “a head-on collision between two trains: a freight train and train IC 62 which had departed from Athens to Thessaloniki.”
About 350 passengers were on board at the time of the collision, according to Hellenic Train.
