Greece train crash kills 38 as PM terms it ‘tragic human error’

LARISSA, Greece: A head-on collision between two trains in Greece killed 38 people, with many more still missing on Wednesday after the accident on a route plagued by years of safety warnings.

In Greece´s worst train tragedy in decades, two carriages were crushed and a third engulfed in fire when a passenger train and freight train collided in the central city of Larissa. At least 85 people were injured in the accident, which left a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass in a field. Six of them are in intensive care.

“I´ve never seen anything like this in my entire life,” said one rescue worker, emerging from the wreckage. “It´s tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies.” In some cases, passengers are being identified from body parts, volunteer fireman Vassilis Iliopoulos told Skai TV, warning that the death toll would rise. “It was the train of terror,” Pavlos Aslanidis, whose son is missing along with a friend, told reporters.

Greece´s transport minister submitted his resignation just hours after the accident. “When something so tragic happens, we cannot continue as if nothing had happened,” Kostas Karamanlis said in a public statement. Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that a “tragic human error” was probably responsible for a train collision in the country´s worst rail tragedy.