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Five people were killed and 30 were injured at a 40 car pile-up in northern Greece on Sunday, according to the latest toll announced by Greek authorities.
The 39-year-old foreign driver of the lorry with the Romanian license plates which triggered the tragedy has been arrested. He claimed that the brakes of the vehicle failed, according to police sources.
The identities of the victims of the multiple vehicle accident have not been announced.
Local police said that the people pulled out dead from the site were two Greek women, aged 53, a 42-year-old man and a Bulgarian national. One man's body was retrieved charred out of a burned out car. At least two vehicles were totally destroyed by fire.
The fifth victim succumbed to his injuries a few hours later during a surgery at a nearby hospital.
Among the injured, a female, two infants aged six months and two years old, and another child were in serious condition, according to local hospital sources.
The incident occurred on a highway which connects the city port of Thessaloniki with the city of Veroia.
Vehicles smashed into each other when a lorry collided onto one of the cars who were at a standstill at a site where the road was narrowing due to ongoing works.
The driver was in a state of shock, telling Fire Brigade officers who rushed to evacuate passengers from vehicles that there were no efficient warning signs, according to eye witnesses.
In his first testimony to police he acknowledged that he had seen workmen waving flags and signs, but the truck's brakes failed.
At least three large trucks were involved in the pile up, Fire Brigade officials said.
Macedonia-Thrace Minister Giorgos Orfanos who visited the site and injured who are hospitalized in local clinics said that all people responsible for the tragedy will face justice.
Apart from the driver, the supervisor of the road works has also been arrested. Both will be led before a prosecutor on Monday. Enditem
