Greece train crash: Transport minister quits after at least 36 die in collision

Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned following a rail crash which killed at least 36 people, saying he felt it was his "duty" to step down.

The announcement came after Greek police said the stationmaster in the city of Larissa has been arrested following the head-on crash that left at least 85 people injured.

A police statement identified the suspect only as a 59-year-old man. Another two people have been detained for questioning.

Mr Karamanlis said he felt it was his "duty" to step down "as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly".

Police and emergency crews search the debris of a crushed wagon after a train accident in the Tempi Valley near Larissa, Greece. Picture: Zekas Leonidas/Eurokinissi/AFP via Getty Images

Fire Service officials said 36 people were killed and at least 85 were hurt after multiple train carriages derailed and at least three caught on fire after the crash between a passenger train and a freight train just before midnight near Tempe, some 235 miles north of Athens.

Visiting the accident scene, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the government must help the injured recover and identify the dead.

"I can guarantee one thing: We will find out the causes of this tragedy and we will do all that's in our power so that something like this never happens again," Mr Mitsotakis said.

On Wednesday, the government declared three days of national mourning, while flags flew at half-staff outside all European Commission buildings in Brussels.

Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn yesterday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train carriages due to the impact.

They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge where major highway and rail tunnels are located.

"There were many big pieces of steel," said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident and one of the first on the scene. "The trains were completely destroyed."

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the train's rear carriages as he arrived.

"People, naturally, were scared – very scared," he said. "They were looking around, searching; they didn't know where they were."

The regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greece's Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

"Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed," he said. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train which was carrying hundreds of people.

"The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains," fire service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said.

Hospital units used to treat burn victims had been alerted in the area, he said, adding that dozens of ambulances were involved in the rescue effort.

Many of the passengers on board the Athens to Thessaloniki train had been students returning home after celebrating Carnival.

Government officials said the army has been contacted to assist in the rescue.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear.