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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 2 March 2023
Fiery Greece train collision kills 32, injures at least 85

By COSTAS KANTOURIS and dead are believed to have
DEREK GATOPOULOS been found in the restau-
Associated Press rant area near the front of
TEMPE, Greece (AP) — A the passenger train.
passenger train carrying Hospital officials in the
hundreds of people col- nearby city of Larissa said
lided at high speed with at least 25 of those hurt had
an oncoming freight train serious injuries.
in a fiery wreck in northern "The evacuation process is
Greece, killing 32 and injur- ongoing and is being car-
ing at least 85, officials said ried out under very diffi-
Wednesday. cult conditions due to the
Multiple cars derailed and severity of the collision be-
at least three burst into tween the two trains," said
flames after the collision Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a
near the town of Tempe spokesperson for Greece's
on Tuesday just before firefighting service.
midnight. Rescue crews The possible cause of the
illuminated the scene collision was not immedi-
with floodlights before ately clear. Two rail officials
dawn on Wednesday as were being questioned by
they searched frantically police but had not been
through the twisted, smok- Smoke rises from trains as firefighters and rescuers operate after a collision near Larissa city, detained.
ing wreckage for survivors. Greece, early Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Passengers who received
Survivors said several pas- Associated Press minor injuries or were un-
sengers were thrown harmed were transported
through the windows of pieces of steel," said Vas- said. "They were looking head on at high speed. by bus to Thessaloniki, 130
the train cars due to the silis Polyzos, a local resident around, searching; they "Carriage one and two no kilometers (80 miles) to
impact. They said others who was one of the first didn't know where they longer exist, and the third the north. Police took their
fought to free themselves people on the scene. "The were." has derailed," he said. names as they arrived, in
after the passenger train trains were completely de- The trains crashed just be- Rescuers wearing head an effort to track anyone
buckled, slamming into a stroyed, both passenger fore the Vale of Tempe, a lamps worked in thick who may be missing.
field next to the tracks near and freight trains." gorge that separates the smoke, pulling pieces of A teenage survivor who did
a gorge about 380 kilome- He said dazed and disori- regions of Thessaly and mangled metal from the not give his name told re-
ters (235 miles) north of Ath- ented people were escap- Macedonia. Costas Ago- cars to search for trapped porters that just before the
ens where major highway ing out of the train's rear rastos, the regional gover- people. Others scoured the crash he felt a strong brak-
and rail tunnels are locat- cars as he arrived. nor of the Thessaly area, field with flashlights and ing and saw sparks and
ed. "People, naturally, were told Greece's Skai televi- checked underneath the then there was a sudden
"There were many big scared — very scared," he sion the two trains crashed wreckage. Several of the stop.q

Ice Age Europeans found refuge in Spain, doom in Italy

the Gravettian culture, a said Cosimo Posth, a re- meanwhile, mixed with
term used to describe the searcher at the University migrants from the east as
people who once roamed of Tuebingen who led the Europe warmed again al-
Europe and produced dis- study. most 15,000 years ago and
tinctive tools and art such "To our big surprise, in Italy then swiftly repopulated
as the voluptuous 'Venus' the population that was the continent from Iberia to
figurines found at ancient present before the last gla- Poland and the British Isles,
sites across the continent. cial maximum completely dominating it for thousands
The study, published disappears," said Posth. of years.
Wednesday in the journal "They didn't make it." The genetic footprint of the
Nature, highlights the im- Genetic analysis of indi- Gravettians can be found
pact that climate change viduals from Italy after the in the last Spanish hunter-
and migration had on the last Ice Age shows the gatherer populations until
early inhabitants of Europe. dark-skinned, dark-eyed the arrival of the first farm-
It suggests that those who Gravettian population was ers, who migrated to Eu-
lived in what is now Italy replaced by newcom- rope from Anatolia some
when the ice expanded ers from the Balkans, who 8,000 years ago, said Posth.
This image provided by the Max Planck Institute shows a male
skull with stone tools from Gross Fredenwalde, Germany, dated southward some 25,000 brought blue eyes and a In an accompanying com-
to about 7,000 years ago. years ago appeared to touch of Near Eastern an- mentary published by Na-
Associated Press have found themselves in cestry with them. ture, Ludovic Orlando of
a dead end compared to The researchers analyzed the Center for Anthropo-
By FRANK JORDANS only those who sheltered their cousins who lived in re- 116 new genetic samples biology and Genomics in
BERLIN (AP) — New re- in what is now Spain and gion that now covers parts they added to 240 ancient Toulouse, France, said the
search reveals that the Portugal appear to have of southern France, Spain specimens already known, study showed how climate
hunter-gatherer people survived. and Portugal. covering a span from change affected popula-
who dominated Europe Using new genetic analy- Those who went west sur- about 45,000 to 5,000 years tions in Europe and that
30,000 years ago sought sis of prehistoric human vived the worst of the Ice ago. ancient human cultures
refuge from the last Ice remains, scientists were Age, known to scientists as The Gravettians who sur- weren't always ethnically
Age in warmer places, but able to trace the fate of the last glacial maximum, vived the Ice Age in Spain, homogenous.q