Traces of two highly volatile chemical substances have been detected in six out of 25 samples taken from the debris of the freight train involved in the Tempe railway disaster, according to Kostas Lakafossis, an expert investigator representing some of the victims’ families.
“Samples were collected from the freight cars and metal sheets in May 2024 and sent to the General State Chemistry Laboratory for analysis. Nine months later, we now discover that xylene and toluene were found on the metal sheets of the first freight car, on the wood of the first two freight cars, and at one point on the fourth freight car,” Lakafossis said in an interview with Mega TV on Monday.
“Additionally, six different locations at the front of the freight train showed traces of xylene and toluene,” he added, noting that these findings have now been included in the case file.
There has been an ongoing debate over whether the freight train may have been carrying illegal chemical substances when it collided into the Intercity passenger train at Tempe in central Greece on the night of February 28, 2023, causing a fireball that has been captured on CCTV footage.
Recordings of victims’ calls to the 112 emergency line have suggested that some may have survived the initial collision but perished in a fire of yet unconfirmed origin that burned for over an hour after the crash.
Fifty-seven passengers and crew died in the crash.
