National tragedy in Greece: what the rescued say

The passenger and freight train accident occurred shortly after 23:00 on Tuesday 28 February in the Evangelismos area, near Tempi. A violent collision caused a fire, which was extinguished shortly after 01:30 am. The rescued passengers were taken by bus to Thessaloniki.

“The terrible list will grow,” said the governor of the Thessaly region, Kostas Agorastos. All nine employees reportedly ΟΣΕ – machinists and accompanying two trains – died. Collision happened under circumstances that have not yet been clarified, there is additional information about dozens of wounded, burned and crippled. The first testimonies of the surviving passengers are shocking: “The metal has melted.”

Relatives cried and hugged, meeting their relatives and friends, delivered by KTEL bus after tragic accident in Tempi. There were also many wounded, with blood on their clothes and faces. One of the survivors says:

“Only iron remained, the front cars burned down. There was no braking. The train immediately crashed and derailed.

Another rescued tellsthat many who tried to get out of the burning cars did not have time and died. He says:

“Actually, I am alive by a lucky chance, since my seat was in the second car, which was engulfed in flames, but ended up in the fifth car. At first I was confused, like most of the passengers, but I tried to keep my cool to help others get out of the car. We all come together to help others. Many did not understand what exactly happened because they were sleeping. I, too, was asleep, and I was disturbed by the sudden braking. However, later, when we realized what had happened, we tried to get out of the car, and when we succeeded, we saw chaos.”

Eleni Karadiamantis, with relief and great excitement, hugged her daughter as soon as she got off the bus:

“I tried to contact her, but I couldn’t, she lost her mobile phone. Fortunately, she had a colleague with her who helped her get out of the car. I still can’t get over it, it’s really a tragedy what happened.”

In just one night, five buses transported 194 survivors from the site of the tragic accident to Thessaloniki railway station. Of these, 26 were initially transferred to AHEPA and 32 to Gennimatas Hospital, some of them were discharged after first aid.

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