Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Sep 03, 2025

Greece train crash: Survivors describe ‘nightmarish seconds’

Survivors have told of a “nightmarish 10 seconds” as their train carriage overturned and was engulfed in flames in a crash in central Greece.
At least 36 people died and dozens more were injured in the head-on collision between two trains near the city of Larissa on Tuesday night.

The front carriages of a passenger train involved were mostly destroyed.

Rescuers have been working through the night to search for survivors after a train crash near the city of Larissa, in northern Greece.

The station master in the Greek city near where two trains collided on Tuesday night has been arrested, police said.

“We heard a big bang,” said 28-year-old passenger Stergios Minenis, who jumped to safety from the wreckage.

“We were turning over in the carriage until we fell on our sides and until the commotion stopped. Then there was panic. Cables, fire. The fire was immediate. As we were turning over we were being burned. Fire was right and left,” Minenis was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“For 10, 15 seconds it was chaos. Tumbling over, fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming, people trapped.”

The passenger train had been traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki when it crashed head-on with the other freight train, causing the front carriages to burst into flames, shortly before midnight local time.

It is being described as the worst train crash Greece has ever seen. An investigation has been launched and police say they have arrested a local station master in Larissa.

Survivors have described the panic and chaos of the crash, with one shaken passenger telling Skai television, “the windows suddenly exploded” and “people were screaming and were afraid”.

“Fortunately, we were able to open the doors and escape fairly quickly. In other wagons, they did not manage to get out, and one wagon even caught fire.”

Some passengers said they were forced to break carriage windows with their bodies or luggage to escape the burning wreckage.

Angelos Tsiamouras told Greek broadcaster ERT the crash had felt like an earthquake, and he smashed the train window using his suitcase. “We broke the windows with our backs,” another unnamed passenger said.

One survivor, Lazos, told the newspaper Protothema: “I wasn’t hurt, but I was stained with blood from other people who were injured near me.”

Many of the 350 passengers on board the passenger train were students in their 20s returning to Thessaloniki after a long weekend celebrating Greek Orthodox Lent.

Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis said the exact number of dead is still unclear, amid reports there are 20-25 people still missing. However, officials say some may have left the scene without being accounted for.

One woman told Greek channel ANT1 her 23-year-old cousin, who was speaking to his mother on the phone from the passenger train shortly before the line cut, is still missing.

“His mother has been looking for him since dawn,” she added. Sixty-six people were being treated in hospital for their injuries, including six admitted to intensive care.

“It was a very powerful collision,” the regional governor of the Thessaly region, Kostas Agorastos, told state-run television.

He said the first four carriages of the passenger train were derailed, and the first two carriages caught fire and were “almost completely destroyed”.

“They were traveling at great speed and one (driver) didn’t know the other was coming,” the governor added.

As daylight broke, dozens of rescue workers aided with cranes were lifting the charred remains of the derailed carriages to search for more victims.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life. It’s tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies,” an exhausted rescuer emerging from the wreckage told AFP news agency.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who visited the disaster scene on Wednesday, has vowed to find out what happened and ensure it never happens again.

Three days of national mourning have also been declared.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
Pickles are the latest craze among Generation Z in the United States.
Deadline Day Delivers Record £125m Isak Move and Donnarumma to City
Nestlé Removes CEO Laurent Freixe Following Undisclosed Relationship with Subordinate
Giuliani Seriously Injured in Accident – Trump to Award Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
EU is getting aggressive: Four AfD Candidates Die Unexpectedly Ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia Local Elections
Lula and Putin Hold Strategic BRICS Discussions Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
×