Increase the number of deaths
At least 57 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the two trains that collided in central Greece on Tuesday, said the head of the forensic department of the city of Larisa, Rubini Leontari.
The coroner told the private Realfm radio that this Thursday 14 charred corpses were transferred to the morgue, bringing the total number of victims to 57, since until Wednesday the Larisa forensic department had received 43 lifeless bodies.
Hospitals in Larisa, Thessaloniki and Katerini are treating dozens of wounded, six of whom are in intensive care.
In Lárisa, hundreds of people came to donate blood for the wounded.
Most of the injured are university students returning to Thessaloniki after a festive long weekend. The Khathineini newspaper reports that all the people in the ICU are young people between the ages of 21 and 26.
“It was a train full of students, young people in their twenties,” Costas Bargiotas, a doctor at the Lárisa hospital, told reporters. “It’s really shocking to see the wagons crumpled up like paper,” he added.
Until now, the official number of victims of the railway tragedy amounted to 46, according to the latest report issued by the Fire Department.
Leontari further noted that apart from the corpses in the morgue there are 10 bags with individual human fragments that have yet to be identified.
Many bodies were burned and some passengers were identified by parts of their bodies, based on samples collected from family members.
“We have taken a DNA test from each human member,” said the coroner. “In this way, a member that belongs to a recovered corpse can be attributed to this lifeless body. If other members cannot be attributed we will have their DNA,” she added.
The conservative government spokesman, Yannis Ikonomu, said this afternoon at a press conference that so far only nine bodies have been identified.
With information from AFP and EFE
