Greece: Death Toll From Rail Disaster rises to 57

Anger in Greece over poor railway safety grew on Thursday as the death toll from one of the country’s worst train crashes in recent years reached 57.

Demonstrators poured onto the streets after the head-on collision between a passenger train carrying more than 350 people and a freight train on Tuesday evening in Tempi, near the city of Larissa.

Protesters clashed with police in the Greek capital Athens, the Greek transport minister resigned in the wake of the tragedy and a rail workers union is going on strike, accusing the government of “disrespect” in the sector.

Another 48 people remain in hospital as a result of the crash, which left toppled carriages and scorched debris in its wake. “Six of the injured being treated are in critical condition due to head wounds and serious burns,” state-owned public broadcaster ERT reported Thursday.

Most of the passengers involved in the accident were young, a local hospital told ERT. The accident came soon after a holiday weekend.

“The identification process of the dead is ongoing alongside recovery efforts involving firefighters and ambulance workers,” with the focus on the first carriages of the passenger train, Greek authorities said.

Some of the relatives and friends of missing passengers have published their photos on social media in an appeal for information about their loved ones, CNN affiliate Skai TV reported.

Greece has “a weak record of railway passenger safety” compared with other countries in Europe, recording the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometers from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent, according to a 2022 report from the European Union Agency for Railways.

CNN/Shakirat Sadiq