(ANSA-AFP) - LARISSA, MAR 2 - The toll from Greece's worst
rail accident rose to 42 on Thursday after a head-on collision
blamed on "human error" that has sparked angry protests. The two
trains collided near a tunnel outside the central Greek city of
Larissa before midnight on Tuesday. Two carriages were crushed
and a third caught fire, trapping people inside. A fire
department spokeswoman told AFP that rescue crews had worked all
night in search for survivors, but chances were dwindling. "Time
is not on our side," she said. Prime Minister Kyriakos
Mitsotakis said it was a "terrible train accident without
precedent" in Greece, promising that the tragedy would be
"fully" investigated. "Everything shows that the drama was,
sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error," Mitsotakis said
Wednesday after visiting the disaster site. Passengers have
described scenes of horror and chaos from the crash, many
dodging smashed glass and debris as the train keeled over, and
breaking windows to climb out. The train's restaurant car
erupted in flames after the collision, with temperatures inside
reaching 1,300 degrees Celsius, the fire department said. For
hours after the crash it was not immediately clear how many
people were on board, complicating efforts to determine how many
are missing. Roubini Leontari, the chief coroner at Larissa's
general hospital, on Thursday told state TV ERT that over 10
people are missing, including two Cyprus nationals. TV footage
from the wreck site on Thursday showed a crane gingerly lifting
the mangled remains of a train carriage, under which a body is
believed to be trapped. "It was a student train, full of
kids...in their 20s," Costas Bargiotas, a senior orthopaedic
doctor at Larissa General Hospital, told Skai TV. "It was truly
shocking... the carriages crumpled like paper," he said.
Rescuers at the scene said they had never dealt with a disaster
of this magnitude before. Many bodies were charred beyond
recognition and some passengers were being identified from body
parts. Seventeen biological samples have been collected from
remains, and from 23 relatives seeking a match, the police said.
- Angry demonstrators rallied outside the Athens office of
Hellenic Train on Wednesday evening, as police used tear gas to
disperse protesters who threw rocks at the building. Earlier in
Larissa, demonstrators held a silent vigil and brought white
roses to form the word Tempe, the name of the valley where the
accident took place. The station master on duty at the time of
the accident was due to appear before a prosecutor at the
central city of Larissa later Thursday. (ANSA-AFP).
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