Carnage after trains collide near Greek city of Larissa

 

Two trains have collided in northern Greece with the loss of at least 26 lives and dozens of people injured, emergency services say.

Rescuers have been working to save passengers and extinguish a fire caused by the crash near the city of Larissa on Tuesday evening.

The incident involved a passenger train and a freight train.

Footage published on local news sites shows fierce flames and thick plumes of smoke rising from derailed carriages.

The fire brigade said 17 vehicles were at the scene trying to put out the flames.

It is not yet known what caused the collision.

The passenger train was travelling between Thessaloniki and Larissa.

“There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming,” an unnamed young man evacuated from the scene was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“It was like an earthquake,” another passenger named Angelos Tsiamouras told local media.

“It was a very powerful collision,” the regional governor of the Thessaly region, Kostas Agorastos, told state-run television in quotes cited by AP news agency. “This is a terrible night… It’s hard to describe the scene.”