Passengers of Greek train crash describe ordeal

Record ID: 1713818

  • Title: Passengers of Greek train crash describe ordeal
  • Date: 1st March 2023
  • Summary: AMBULANCE LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 15th March 2023 02:33
  • Keywords: greece train
  • Location: THESSALONIKI, GREECE
  • City: THESSALONIKI, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA003382101032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Passengers travelling on a train that collided with another in Greece late on Tuesday (February 28) described the scene after being transported from the crash site by bus to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
    As they disembarked paramedics were on hand to provide first aid. Some showed bloodstains on their faces.
    “We heard a big bang, (it was) ten nightmarish seconds, we were turning over in the wagon until we fell on our sides, and until the commotion stopped, then there was panic, cables (everywhere) fire, the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left,” said 28-year old passenger Stergios Minenis.
    "There was panic, for ten, fifteen seconds it was chaos, tumbling over, fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming, people trapped, it was two metres high from where we jumped to leave and beneath there were broken iron debris, but what could we do?” said Minenis.
    “We came down, a fire had erupted next to us, this man here he saw a hole, so we managed to get out from where we were,” said another passenger, pointing to Minenis.
    Twenty-six people were killed and at least 85 injured after two trains collided head-on the fire brigade said, while the circumstances of the crash remained unclear.
    An intercity passenger train traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided with a cargo train outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, said the governor of the Thessaly region.
    About 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses.
    (Production: Alexandros Avramidis, Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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