At Least 36 Dead, Scores Injured as Trains Collide in Greece

Theatre of Dionysus, on the south slope of the Acropolis hill
At least 36 people were killed and 85 were injured when a passenger train carrying an estimated 350 people collided with a freight train on Tuesday evening, shortly before midnight, in Tempi, a municipality in Greece, the Greek Fire Service said.
At least 66 people were being treated for their injuries in hospital, with six in intensive care units.
The two trains were traveling on the same track for many miles before the incident occurred, according to a report from state-owned public broadcaster ERT. The passenger train had reportedly switched to a cargo track before it collided head-on with the freight train, the report stated.
Passengers scrambled to escape the wreckage. “There was panic,” one passenger, 28-year-old Stergios Minenis said, according to a Reuters report.  “The fire was immediate, as we were turning over we were being burned, fire was right and left,” he added.
Speaking outside the hospital in Larissa, Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris said, “[A]s you understand this is a terrifying process for parents and relatives who are here. We will help them as much as we can.”
The majority of passengers were young, the head of the ICU at a local hospital to which the injured were brought told ERT on Wednesday.
Plevris also said that the process of identifying the victims had also begun.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is en route to the scene of the collision, his office said in a statement
(Photo: Accura Media Group)