Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Sep 01, 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

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
×