ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2023) The number of people killed by a collision of passenger and cargo trains in northern Greece has risen to 32, while 53 out of 85 wounded people still remain in hospitals, Hellenic Fire Service spokesperson Vassilis Vartakoyannis said on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, two trains collided around midnight at the Evangelismos station near the city of Larissa, over 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Athens, under unknown circumstances. The collision caused a fire; three train cars derailed.
"At the moment, the deaths of 32 people have been confirmed. Of the 85 wounded taken to hospitals, 53 have been hospitalized, and the rest have been discharged," Vartakoyannis said in a televised appearance on the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT).
The spokesman added that firefighters' efforts were mostly focused on the first two cars of the passenger train, which had overturned, as extracting people from there was the most difficult task.
Vartakoyannis said earlier in the day that about 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were participating in the rescue operation.
Following the incident, Greek railways Hellenic Train canceled 16 scheduled trains, in particular, from Athens to Thessaloniki and Kalabaka, and vice versa.
Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postponed his trip to Thessaloniki, scheduled as part of the election campaign, the leader's office said.
President of Panhellenic Federation of Train Drivers Kostas Genidounias linked the railway accident to regular automatic alarm system failures.
"Electronic systems have not worked in years. Traffic control is carried out mainly by radio," Genidounias told ERT, stressing that "the unthinkable has happen. Two trains were on the same track. The passenger (train) was en route to Thessaloniki, the cargo (train) - from Thessaloniki to Athens. There was a head-on collision and you can see the results."
The union's head added that all railway operations was carried out in manual mode, since automatic systems do not work, despite numerous complaints from train drivers.
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis emphasized that victims treatment was the priority at the moment, but his left-wing political party, MeRA25, would soon hold lawmakers responsible for privatization of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) in 2017 accountable.
The privatization tender of OSE, now Hellenic Train, lasted for four years until the Italian national railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane acquired 100% of shares for 45 million Euros ($47 million) in 2017. Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane was the only company to submit a binding offer.
