On video: Looking for survivors in the train accident in Greece (Reuters)
The death toll in the train accident in Greece last night (Wednesday) is expected to rise, said today the spokesman of the fire department, Vasilis Vartakougiannis.
He added that the temperatures in the first train car reached 1,300 degrees Celsius.
"In the trailer where the fire broke out, temperatures reached 1,300 degrees Celsius. This makes it difficult to identify the people who were inside. The current confirmed number of victims is 36, but it is expected to be much higher," he said.
At the same time, the Minister of Transport of Greece submitted his resignation.
A passenger train collided head-on with a freight train, causing all the cars to derail.
This is the deadliest train accident in Greece.
Dozens were injured in the accident and the fire that broke out afterwards.
A station manager was arrested for questioning.
"There was panic, the fire broke out immediately. We turned around and got burned, the fire was on all sides," said Stergios Minnis, a 28-year-old passenger, who managed to jump from the trailer.
Another passenger who escaped from the fifth car told the Skai TV network: "The windows were shattered and people were screaming...one of the windows collapsed inward from the top."
Rescue teams continued to search the charred remains for victims at dawn.
Cranes lifted the wagons.
One trailer even flipped on its side at an angle of 90 degrees.
The flags in Athens were lowered to half-mast as a tribute to the victims of the accident.
The Greek government declared three days of mourning.
Many of the victims are apparently university students on their way back from a long weekend break.
"This is an unimaginable tragedy. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims," said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who arrived at the scene.
President Katerina Sclaropoulou cut short a visit to Moldova and returned to Greece following the accident.
Flags in Athens were lowered to half-mast (Photo: Reuters)
The Greek government announced three days of mourning (Photo: Reuters)
The manager of the local railway station, who was responsible for the signals, was arrested and charged with causing death by negligence and grievous bodily harm by negligence, one of the police officers said.
The 59-year-old denied responsibility for the accident and said it was a technical fault.
The passenger train was on its way from Athens to Thessaloniki in northern Greece, and the freight train was traveling from Thessaloniki to Larissa.
The passenger train was leaving a tunnel near the city of Larissa when the accident occurred.
A passenger train was on its way from Athens to Thessaloniki in northern Greece (Photo: Reuters)
The freight train traveled from Thessaloniki to Larissa (Photo: Reuters)
The passenger train carried 342 passengers and ten crew members.
There were two crew members on the freight train (Photo: Reuters)
Government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said the two trains had been traveling towards each other on the same track "for many kilometers" before the accident.
According to the head of the Greek Railway Workers' Union Yiannis Ditsas, he said that the automatic signaling at the point of the accident did not work.
The passenger train carried 342 passengers and ten crew members.
There were two crew members on the freight train.
66 people were evacuated to hospitals, six of them in intensive care, the fire department said.
The director of the emergency department at Larsia Hospital, Apostolos Komanos, said that most of the dead are young people in their twenties.
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