Greece’s transport minister has resigned after a train crash that killed at least 36 people and injured scores. Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis said he felt it was his “duty” to step down “for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.”
“The glass in the windows shattered and fell on top of us,” he told ERT. “My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt. Some people started to climb out through the windows because there was smoke in the carriage. The doors were closed but in a few minutes train staff opened them and we got out.”
, officials said. This year was the first time the three-day festival, which precedes Lent, was celebrated in full since the start of the pandemic in 2020. The government declared three days of national mourning from Wednesday, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.
Rescuer Lazaros Sarianidis told state broadcaster ERT that crews were “very carefully” trying to disentangle steel, sheet metal and other material that was twisted together by the crash. “It will take a long time,” said Sarianidis. “People, naturally, were scared — very scared,” he said. “They were looking around, searching; they didn’t know where they were.”
More than 200 people who were unharmed in the crash or suffered minor injuries were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.
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