The number of confirmed dead from the train collision at Tempi is 57, Hellenic Police press spokesperson Konstantia Dimoglidou announced on Friday morning. She clarified that all those originally reported as missing have been included in the list of the dead.
“Mistakes are made on this point and some have added those reported as missing by their families to the number of dead retrieved after the accident. All those reported initially are included in the dead,” she clarified.
She said that 36 of the bodies found have been identified so far from samples taken by the police forensics department and that 38 of the injured passengers remain in hospital.
Dimoglidou explained that the DNA testing was being carried out by Hellenic Police forensics labs, adding that 11 of the families involved have been informed so far by the police identification teams and specialist psychologists.
“In the laboratories, the work of identification is taking place on a 24-hour basis and all other work has been put on hold in order to complete the identification process as quickly as possible,” she said.
Regarding the injured, she said that 31 were being treated in ordinary hospital beds and seven had been admitted to ICUs.
Fire brigade spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis, on his part, said the search of the crash site is expected to have been completed by Friday afternoon, with the cranes having moved the two carriages that were hampering the search operation.
Firefighters are also sweeping the remains of the carriages and the ground around the crash site to possibly locate additional bodies or small samples of biological material that can be used to identify victims, he added.
(amna.gr)
