Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the train accident near the city of Larissa, which killed 38 people. It is reported on Wednesday, March 1, the Greek newspaper Proto Theme.
“Mourning comes into force from today, flags will be flown at half-staff on all public buildings and mass holiday celebrations will be suspended,” the publication quotes him as saying.
The material notes that Mitsotakis has been in constant contact with the coordinating center and the relevant ministers from the first minutes of the tragedy. In the near future, the Prime Minister will go to the place of emergency. Now there is the Minister of Transport Kostas Karamanlis.
The crash occurred earlier Wednesday near the Greek city of Larisa. Two trains that were moving towards each other, for some unknown reason, ended up on the same track. There was a collision, resulting in a fire.
According to firefighters, the first train cars were completely crushed, from the strongest impact, the wheels and fragments of the casing were thrown up to a distance of 100 m from the railway track. Rescuers are still trying to dismantle the first two cars, which have turned into a pile of iron.
According to official information from the fire department, 150 firefighters are working at the scene. In addition, 32 police officers from 15 patrol cars are at the scene.
The cause of the accident, preliminarily, could be an error when changing the railway tracks, due to which the two trains ended up on the same route. The number of victims has now reached 38, 66 people are in hospitals, of which six are in intensive care units.
Data on the dead or injured citizens of the Russian Federation as a result of a train collision is not yet available.
