At least 32 people have died and 85 have been injured in the collision between a passenger train traveling between Athens and Thessaloniki and a freight convoy, according to the Greek fire service.
About 350 people and 20 crew members were traveling on the two trains, one for passengers and the other for goods, explained the railway company 'Hellenic Train'.
The trains collided shortly before local midnight (11 p.m., Spanish peninsular time) near Tempe, a small town located in a valley where a railway tunnel is located, about 300 kilometers north of Athens.
Several carriages derailed and at least three caught fire in the accident.
Sixty of the injured, including 25 in serious condition, were taken to hospitals in Larissa, a city some 270 kilometers north of Athens.
The rest of the less seriously injured were transferred to clinics in Katerini and Thessaloniki.
Among the injured are several minors, who were traveling on the night train between Athens and Thessaloniki, the two main urban centers of the country.
The first estimates point to human error with the two trains running on the same track.
However, there is also the possibility that one of the trains has derailed and invaded the other track where it collided with the convoy, private channel SKAI TV said.
According to the local press, everything indicates that the trains - both operated by 'Hellenic Train' - were going at high speed at the time of impact, which is why the respective drivers and other crew members died in the accident.
Some 250 people who survived the crash and were unharmed or slightly injured were taken by bus to Thessaloniki, located 130 kilometers north of the accident.
Rescue teams, including some 150 firefighters, are continuing their work to free passengers trapped in the carriages, and the death toll is feared to rise.
Several members of the Greek government were at dawn on Wednesday on their way to the scene and to the hospitals where the injured were admitted.
"The evacuation process is ongoing and is taking place in very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision," a spokesman for the Fire Service explained.
The governor of the Thessalia region, Kostas Agorastos, told ERT that the two trains were on the same track at the time of the collision.
The authorities deployed a huge rescue operation with police officers, 40 firefighters and some 30 ambulances transferred to the scene to help the dozens of injured, according to the local media Onlarissa.
According to the ANA press agency, the fire was brought under control overnight by firefighters who estimate that, in addition to "dozens of injuries, several people were found unconscious and dead."
Lazos, a passenger questioned by the
Protothema
newspaper , declared: "We have experienced something very shocking."
"I'm not hurt, but I'm stained with the blood of other people who were hurt next to me," he said.
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