World leaders have expressed their grief after Greece’s deadliest train crash, which killed at least 43 people and left many more injured.
Among the first to express their condolences to Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and President Katerina Sakellaropoulou was Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A statement by the social media account of the Turkish presidency said: “In his message, President Erdogan stated that he is deeply saddened by the accident, and conveyed his condolences for those who lost their life in the accident and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz released a statement sharing his grief in the aftermath of the deadly collision in central Greece.
“The news of the train crash in Greece is terrible! We mourn with our Greek friends, and our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. We wish you great strength at this difficult time,” said the chancellor in a statement.
The President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, also expressed his condolences in a message to Sakellaropoulou on Wednesday.
The Chinese state leader expressed his sincere condolences for the victims of the train disaster, sympathy to the bereaved families and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.
These statement come as Greece’s Opposition leaders, Alexis Tsipras and Nikos Androulakis, also expressed their “deep shock” at the deadly train collision.
“What happened is unthinkable. Our thoughts [are with] the people who are died so unjustly,” SYRIZA leader Mr Tsipras said.
“This is an unspeakable tragedy. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and the injured,” PASOK-KINAL leader Mr Androulakis said in his own statement.
