A shocking new video of the first few minutes after the train collision in Tempi was released Thursday morning.
Video recorded by a passenger on the fatal Intercity62 shows the inferno that broke out after the trains collided with someone saying "there's been an explosion, one train has crashed into another".
In the same video, the voices of people trying to get out of the passenger train are recorded, with one of the survivors talking on the phone with a relative and asking for help.
"After Larissa, the crash happened. I saw broken windows and went out, and I couldn't get down. I went back in and then the doors opened and I got out. I helped a gentleman who fell down three times and pulled him out," the man who recorded the video told MEGA.
“Then I went to the front where there was fire, but I couldn't get close because it was high up. All the front carriages were on fire and all the young people had blood.
"The police and the fire department also came. It was too high you couldn't climb up."
He said that "they didn't keep my details when I went by bus to Thessaloniki. I hit my hand a little, I'm fine. I only went to the pharmacy and got some pills, I didn't hit much."
This video is added to the list of shocking media from the Tempi train collision.
A security camera captured the shocking moment of the collision between the passenger train and the freight train which were on the same track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcLvc4UboQE&t=1s&ab_channel=ProtoThema
In another video, an Intercity passenger can be seen getting out of the carriage he was in and walking on the roadway, next to the debris, while the fire is still burning from the explosion that followed the collision.
In a video published by Proto Thema, in the first hours after the tragedy, a passenger can be heard shouting "get out everyone!" while making sure everyone capable left the carriages. The passengers call out again and again, "Is anyone in the train?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQNDkkzagG0&ab_channel=ProtoThema
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06DbksBqRCM&ab_channel=ProtoThema
Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologised on Thursday for a train crash that killed 57 people, promising to fix long-standing deficiencies in the railway sector and to provide financial support for victims’ families.
A passenger train with 350 people on board, most of them university students, collided with a cargo train in central Greece on Feb. 28 in the country’s deadliest rail disaster.
“I want to reiterate a public apology on behalf of those who ruled the country over the years, and mainly personally,” Mitsotakis said during a cabinet meeting. “I assume responsibility.”
The crash has stirred public outrage and protests against a political system which has repeatedly ignored calls by railway unions to install and maintain digital safety systems and hire more staff.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands rallied outside parliament in Athens, the northern city of Thessaloniki and other cities across Greece in the largest street demonstrations the conservative government has faced since being elected in 2019.
The government, which was initially planning to call elections in coming weeks as its term ends in July, has blamed the crash mainly on human error but has also acknowledged deficiencies mainly due to underinvestment and neglect – a legacy of Greece’s debt crisis.
Mitsotakis outlined his government’s priorities on Thursday, which included a transparent investigation into the causes of the crash and compensating the families of victims.
He said that more than 270 million euros would be invested in railway reform and pledged to hire more staff and improve safety by installing digital control systems along the railway network by the end of August.
“We are together in this trial,” Mitsotakis said, adding that young people and their parents had “every right to be angry”. But the leader also called on protesters to not allow anger to split society.
“It is important to give room to sorrow and anger. But we should not allow it to become a spark that will cause divisions,” he said, just before another planned rally by university students in Athens.
READ MORE: Tempi train collision: "I'm ashamed to be alive," says 19-year-old who escaped the dining carriage.
