Headline

Dozens Killed As Trains Collide In Greece

Published

2 years ago

March 1, 2023

At least 32 people were killed and another 85 injured after a collision between two trains caused a derailment near the Greek city of Larissa late Tuesday night, authorities said.

A fire services spokesman confirmed that multiple carriages skipped the tracks just before midnight after the trains — one for freight and the other carrying 350 passengers –- collided about halfway along the route between Athens and Thessaloniki.

“Thirty-two people have been found dead,” spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told reporters, adding that efforts to rescue people still trapped were ongoing.

“Of the 85 people injured, 53 people remain in hospital.”

An explanation for why the two trains collided has not yet been furnished.

Greek media are calling the crash the “worst train accident that Greece has ever known”.

The passenger train had been travelling from the capital Athens to second city Thessaloniki in the north, while the freight train was heading in the opposite direction.

About 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were mobilised for the response, according to Greek emergency services. Cranes and mechanical personnel were also deployed to try to remove debris and right overturned vehicles.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life. It’s tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies,” said an exhausted rescuer emerging from the wreckage where he and his team were working.

One train carriage was completely crushed, making the rescuers’ work particularly difficult, while smoke and flames emerged from other cars.

“The majority of passengers have been taken to safety,” spokesman Vathrakogiannis said.

“The operation to free trapped people is underway and is taking place in difficult conditions, due to the seriousness of the collision between the two trains.”

According to public television station ERT, one of the train cars caught fire after the collision and several people were trapped inside.

The mayor of the nearby town of Tempi, Yorgos Manolis, told ERT many students had been on board the train, returning to Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.

– ‘Stained with blood’ –

One passenger named Lazos told the newspaper Protothema that the experience had been “very shocking”.

“I wasn’t hurt, but I was stained with blood from other people who were injured near me,” he said.

On the local media site Onlarissa, a young woman said through tears that the train “was stopped for a few minutes when we heard a deafening noise”.

Another shaken passenger told Skai television that “the windows suddenly exploded. 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,” he added.

An emergency government meeting was organised after the crash, and Greek health minister Thanos Plevris went to the scene while interior minister Takis Theodorikakos supervised the response from a crisis management centre.

The two hospitals near Larissa have been requisitioned to accommodate the many injured, according to the fire services, while military hospitals in Thessaloniki and Athens are also “on alert” in case they are needed.

AFP

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

5 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

5 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

5 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP