Four women died and a fifth was missing in a fire at a biscuit factory in central Greece early on Monday — one of the country’s deadliest recent industrial accidents, officials said.
“Today, a serious incident occurred at our factory premises during the night shift, due to a cause that remains unknown at this time,” the company said in a statement.
Six employees and a fireman were initially taken to hospital but were soon discharged.
Television footage showed the gutted remains of one of the buildings of the Violanta factory outside the city of Trikala, some 245 kilometres (152 miles) northwest of the capital, Athens.
Witnesses said there was a loud explosion, heard many kilometres away. According to reports, the accident occurred in a furnace area, bringing down the roof.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “A fire department team is already examining the causes of this tragedy so that we know exactly what happened and assign responsibility where it is due.”
He told his cabinet the factory was a “modern” one and said the thoughts of the nation were with the families of the victims.
The blaze is one of the deadliest industrial accidents in Greece for many years.
Trikala labour leader Dimitris Armagos said his organisation had never been allowed to inspect the facility that burned down.
“The explosion happened in the rear wing, in an area we as a labour centre had never entered,” Armagos told news portal ThessPost.
“One wing has been levelled, as if a missile had hit it,” he said.
Over 200 people died in work-related accidents in 2025, according to the federation of technical company employees.
In 1992, 15 people died in a refinery explosion in the industrial zone of Elefsina, near the port of Piraeus.
Three people had died in a dynamite factory explosion in Itea, central Greece, in 2022.
The Violanta plant in Trikala, the company’s first and biggest, produced 12,500 tonnes of biscuits, cookies and wafers per year, according to the company website.
The brand is among the fastest-growing in Greece, with a major presence in shops, and exports to around 40 countries.
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