At least 36 people have been killed and dozens injured after two trains collided in Greece, local authorities said.
The collision took place outside the central city of Larissa just before midnight, when a passenger train conveying 350 passengers, heading from Athens, Greece capital to Thessaloniki collided with a freight train traveling from the northern part of the city.
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Greece fire brigade said of 66 people of the 85 passengers injured had been taken to the hospital in Larissa with 6 others in the intensive care unit.
The president of the OSE train drivers’ union, Kostas Genidounias told AFP from the scene of the accident that the two trains had ended up on the same track and collided head-on.
He said,“it would have been avoided if the safety systems were working”.
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President Katerina Sakellaropoulou had to cut short a visit to Moldova to return to Greece.
She said, “Unfortunately, I have to interrupt my visit in order to be close to my people, to support those who need it,” she told a joint news conference in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, alongside Moldovan President Maia Sandu.
The two hospitals near Larissa have been requisitioned to accommodate the many injured, according to the fire services, while military hospitals in Thessaloniki and Athens are also “on alert” in case they are needed.
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