Author: anonymousmedia_tal70o

A pile-up involving at least 50 vehicles on a highway in central Japan has left two people dead and 26 injured, according to police.

The incident was caused by a crash between two trucks, sparking a chain reaction that set at least 10 vehicles on fire, local police said.

A 77-year-old woman from Tokyo was killed, and another body was discovered in the driver’s seat of a burnt-out truck. Five people were seriously injured and 21 suffered minor injuries, police said.

There was a heavy snow warning in place at the time of the crash. Police believe icy surfaces likely caused the trucks to skid on the roads.

The crash happened on the Kan-etsu Expressway in Minakami, Gunma prefecture, about 160km (100 miles) north-west of Tokyo, at about 19:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on 26 December.

It took about seven and a half hours to put out the fire, police said.

Following the incident, a section of the highway was closed, with a long line of vehicles, many charred beyond recognition, stuck in the outbound lane. Work is under way to tow them away.

A man in his 60s, whose vehicle was involved in the accident, told local media outlet NHK he heard a loud explosion from the far end of the pile-up and saw fire during the crash. The blaze then spread to other vehicles, he said.

He said he was evacuated to a nearby toll gate with about 50 other people and spent the night in the hallway there.

Nexco, which operates the road, said checks were needed to see if the surface was damaged by the fire.

The company is warning travellers not to use the highway.

Four hikers who went missing on Christmas Day have been found dead after being buried by an avalanche in the snow-covered Vardousia Mountains in central Greece.

The bodies of three men and a woman were found on Friday evening after a large-scale search in the mountainous region of Fokida, according to Greek state broadcaster ERT.

Fire service teams located the bodies partially covered by snow on a steep and inaccessible slope near the summit of Korakas peak, at an altitude of about 2,000m (6,561ft). Rescue officials said the group was swept away by an avalanche.

Authorities said the hikers had begun their ascent in favourable weather, but conditions quickly worsened due to the altitude and the area’s terrain.

Vasilis Vathrakogiannis, a spokesperson for the Hellenic Fire Service, told the BBC the alarm was raised by a friend of the three men after they failed to return at the expected time.

“Weather conditions were extremely difficult, with low temperatures and poor visibility,” he said, adding this made it hard for both drones and a helicopter to detect anything.

He said a fire service ground team later found the bodies of the three men and a woman, who was confirmed to be a friend of one of them and had not been expected to take part in the climb.

Recovery efforts were under way on Saturday, in what officials described as an extremely challenging operation.

One of the bodies was successfully airlifted by helicopter. Efforts continue to move the remaining three to a nearby plateau so they can be recovered using a winch.

Haris Asariotakis, head of the Hellenic Rescue Team mission at the scene, said the location was particularly difficult.

“It is about three hours from the village of Athanasios Diakos, at an altitude of 2,000m,” he said. “If the helicopter is unable to reach the area, we will descend on foot together with firefighters and mountain guides.”

Additional reporting by Kostas Koukoumakas