The collision of two trains in Greece leaves at least 32 dead and 85 injured

ATHENS, March 1 (Reuters) – Two trains collided head-on in Greece on Tuesday night, killing at least 32 people and injuring 85, according to firefighters, in Greece’s deadliest train crash in decades.

An intercity passenger train traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided at high speed with a freight train outside the central Greek city of Larisa, the governor of the Thessaly region has said.

The impact caused a fire in several of the passenger cars, causing burns to many travelers who were rushed to hospitals.

“We heard a big bang, it was a 10-second nightmare,” said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety.

“We were turning in the car until we fell sideways…then panic spread, cables (everywhere) shot, fire was immediate, as we turned around, we were burning, fire left and right.”

Thessaly regional governor Konstantinos Agorastos told SKAI TV that the first four carriages of the passenger train derailed in the accident, while the first two, which caught fire, were “almost completely destroyed”.

Both trains crashed on the same track.

“They were driving at high speed and one (the driver) didn’t know the other was coming,” the governor said.

Some 250 passengers were safely evacuated to Thessaloniki in buses. A passenger told public broadcaster ERT he managed to escape after smashing the train window with his suitcase.

In the early hours of Wednesday, footage from public broadcaster ERT showed rescue teams searching among the wreckage of the train and surrounding fields for survivors.

Local media reported that around 350 people were on the passenger train, which left Athens around 7:30 p.m. (0530 GMT). Firefighters reported the accident shortly before midnight on Tuesday. The freight train was traveling from Thessaloniki to Larissa.

Greece’s antiquated rail system needs upgrading: many trains run on single tracks and automatic signaling and control systems have yet to be installed in many areas.

Greece sold rail operator TRAINOSE to Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 as part of its international bailout, expecting hundreds of millions of euros to be invested in rail infrastructure over the course of of the next few years.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Grant McCool, Stephen Coates, Michael Perry and Simon Cameron-Moore, Spanish editing by José Muñoz in the Gdańsk newsroom)