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Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned after at the least 36 individuals died and 85 have been injured when a freight practice collided with a passenger practice on the nation’s principal railway line from Athens to Thessaloniki.
The accident on Tuesday night time, the worst railway crash in Greece in many years, occurred as the 2 trains have been reportedly travelling on the identical monitor in reverse instructions.
A lot of these on the passenger practice have been college students returning after an extended Greek vacation weekend. Survivors talking to Greek media stated the influence of the collision was so robust that it threw a number of passengers by way of the home windows. Rescuers discovered victims’ our bodies so far as 40 metres from the railway line.
Roubini Leontari, the chief coroner at Larissa’s basic hospital, stated a lot of the victims have been younger individuals and a few would should be recognized by their DNA.
The stationmaster within the close by metropolis of Larissa was arrested on Wednesday and has been charged with misdemeanour and mass deaths by way of negligence, in line with police officers.
Karamanlis stated he felt it was his “responsibility” to step down “as a fundamental indication of respect for the reminiscence of the individuals who died so unfairly”.
He stated when his authorities took over in 2019 it had inherited a railway system unfit for the twenty first century however that his ministry’s efforts to enhance it had not been sufficient to stop Tuesday’s accident.
Asserting three days of official mourning as he visited the scene of the accident on Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated: “I can guarantee you we’ll discover out the explanations for this tragedy and can do no matter doable so this won’t occur once more.”
The Greek railway referred to as TrainOSE offered its trains to the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane group in 2017 as a part of the nation’s Eurozone bailout programme and was renamed Hellenic Prepare in 2021. It stored management of the railway community.
The newly fashioned firm was anticipated to speculate a whole lot of thousands and thousands on wanted infrastructure. In a press release on Wednesday, the corporate stated it might “guarantee the utmost assist to the injured and their households”.
A hearth brigade spokesperson stated passengers have been nonetheless being rescued on Wednesday afternoon underneath “troublesome circumstances” due to the severity of the crash. “We live by way of a tragedy. We’re pulling out people who find themselves alive, injured . . . and there are numerous useless,” he stated.
European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen expressed her condolences to the Greek individuals, writing on Twitter, “The entire of Europe is mourning with you.”
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