Two trains collided head-on in Greece killing at least 32 people and injuring 85 late on Tuesday night, the fire brigade said, but the cause of the deadliest rail crash in Greece in decades remained unclear. An intercity passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided at high speed with a cargo train outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, said the governor of the Thessaly region. The impact caused a fire in a number of the passenger carriages, burning many commuters who were rushed to hospitals.

"We heard a big bang, (it was) 10 nightmarish seconds," said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety from the wreckage. "We were turning over in the wagon until we fell on our sides...then there was panic, cables (everywhere) fire, the fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left."

Thessaly regional governor Konstantinos Agorastos told SKAI TV that the first four carriages of the passenger train were derailed in the crash, while the first two carriages, which caught fire, were "almost completely destroyed". He said the two trains hurtled towards each other on the same track. "They were travelling at great speed and one (driver) didn't know the other was coming," the governor said.

According to the Skai television network, the region’s governor, Kostas Agorastos, announced that “more than 250 passengers were transferred to Thessaloniki by bus”. “Unfortunately, the number of injured and dead could be high,” he added. An emergency government meeting is in the works. One passenger named Lazos told the newspaper Protothema that the experience had been “very shocking”. “I wasn’t hurt, but I was stained with blood from other people who were hurt near me,” he said.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP