'Unspeakable tragedy' - Greek PM at train crash site

Record ID: 1714056

  • Title: 'Unspeakable tragedy' - Greek PM at train crash site
  • Date: 1st March 2023
  • Summary: LARISSA, GREECE (MARCH 1, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GREEK PRIME MINISTER KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS TOURING SITE
  • Embargoed: 15th March 2023 11:14
  • Keywords: Greece train
  • Location: LARISSA, GREECE
  • City: LARISSA, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA001394401032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke of an unspeakable tragedy as he toured the site of a deadly train crash on Wednesday (March 1).
    “What we are experiencing today is very very difficult as a country. We are talking about an unspeakable tragedy. Our thoughts today are first and foremost with the relatives of the victims. Our duty is to treat the wounded and from there to identify the bodies. From there, one thing I can guarantee we will find out the causes of this tragedy and do everything in our power to make sure it never happens again,” said Mitsotakis.
    A passenger train and a cargo train collided head-on in Greece on Tuesday night, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens as the country's deadliest rail crash in living memory threw entire carriages off the tracks.
    Many of the victims were thought to be university students on their way back from a long holiday weekend. The death toll was expected to rise further, officials said.
    Cranes lifted derailed passenger carriages in the morning, as rescuers continued to scour through the smoldering mangled mass of steel. One carriage stood on its side at almost 90 degrees from the rest of the wrecked train, with others tilting precariously.
    The local station master, in charge of signaling, has been arrested, a police official said, as investigators tried to find out why the two trains had been on the same track.
    The crash occurred as the passenger train that was headed to the northern Greece city of Thessaloniki from the capital Athens emerged from a tunnel near the town of Larissa.
    The passenger train was carrying 342 travelers and 10 crew, while two crew were on the cargo train, according to Hellenic Train data. Sixty-six of those injured were hospitalized, six of whom in intensive care, a fire brigade official said.
    Survivors were evacuated to Thessaloniki, where one woman ran to embrace her daughter as she disembarked from a bus with other survivors.
    (Production: Alexandros Avramidis, Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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