Greece train collision updates: Death toll rises to 36, dozens more injured

(NEW YORK) — At least 36 people were killed and more than 80 others injured in a head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train in northern Greece late Tuesday, officials said.

The crash occurred shortly before midnight in the town of Tempi along the Athens-Thessaloniki route at the entrance to the Vale of Tempe, a tree-lined gorge that separates the Greek regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. The two trains were running toward each other on the same track and the force of the high-speed collision derailed multiple cars, with some bursting into flames, according to Greece’s Hellenic Fire Service.

About 350 people were on board the northbound passenger train, which was traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki, according to the Greek rail operator Hellenic Train.

At least 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances responded to the scene, with the assistance of 32 police officers and 15 patrol vehicles. The next morning, rescuers were still searching for survivors in the smoking wreckage, using cranes to lift the derailed carriages. Their efforts were focused on the first two cars, “which have overturned and are the most difficult to extricate,” the Hellenic Fire Service said in a statement early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, authorities have begun the process of identifying the dead, whose bodies were taken to the general hospital in the nearby city of Larissa. As for the injured, 53 remain hospitalized while the rest have been treated and released, according to the Hellenic Fire Service.

On Wednesday, the Greek government declared three days of national mourning in the wake of the tragedy.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.