Train collision in Larissa, Greece at least 26 dead, 85 injured as trains collide in Greece

The death toll continues to rise – 350 were on board the Inter City train, 270 were safely removed from the scene – All three drivers of the commercial train are dead.

Emergency services say that two trains have collided in northern Greece, losing at least 29 lives and dozens of people injured. The death toll will keep rising.

A passenger train between Thessaloniki and Larissa collided with a freight train just before midnight local time near Tempi, around 235 miles north of Athens.

Rescuers have been working to save passengers and extinguish a fire caused by the crash near Larissa on Tuesday evening.

The incident is said to have involved passenger and freight trains.

Footage published on local news sites shows fierce flames and thick plumes of smoke rising from derailed carriages.

The fire brigade said 17 vehicles were trying to put out the flames at the scene.

It is not yet known what caused the collision.

The passenger train was travelling between Thessaloniki and Larissa.

“There was panic in the carriage. People were screaming,” a young man evacuated from the scene.

“It was like an earthquake,” another passenger named Angelos Tsiamouras told local media.

Strong police forces, the 8th EMAK, the Larissa Fire Service and 30 EKAV ambulances and doctors from Larissa, Volos and Thessaloniki have rushed to the accident scene. 

Following an order from the National Center for Health Operations, the emergency rooms of the Larissa General Hospital were opened to receive the injured.

Buses rushed to the scene to pick up the passengers, who were in good health. Two hundred seventy passengers were safely evacuated from the scene.

The Minister of Health, Thanos Plevris, goes to the hospitals and the Secretary General of Transport, Yiannis Xifaras, to the collision site. The Minister of Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis, is central to civil protection operations. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is constantly updated.

The 1st Army and the units of the Thessaly Region are activated and put on alert protocol, as provided for in the event of such accidents. Military hospitals in Athens and Thessaloniki are on alert if they need to receive wounded.