Larissa (AFP) - At least 36 people were killed and 85 injured Tuesday evening in a collision between two trains in Greece, according to relief teams Wednesday, which led to a wave of discontent over the lack of safety on this railway .

A police source told AFP that the director of Larissa station in the center of the country, a town not far from the scene of the accident, was arrested on Wednesday.

Government spokesman Yannis Oikonomu said that, for an unknown reason, the two trains had been traveling on the same track "for several kilometres".

"The death toll has now risen to 36," Vassilis Vathrakoyannis, a spokesman for the fire brigade, told reporters, adding that operations were still underway to remove the passengers still trapped in the damaged carriages.

He explained that "66 people were transferred to hospitals, including six in intensive care," while the previous toll spoke of 85 wounded.

The passenger train was making a trip between the capital, Athens, and the city of Thessaloniki in the north-east of the country, while the freight train was making the same trip in the opposite direction.

The head of the union of train drivers, Kostas Genidonias, who went to the scene of the tragedy, denounced the lack of safety systems on this line that connects the two main cities in Greece.

"The two trains were on the same tracks and there was a head-on collision," he told AFP. "No safety system, remote control or traffic lights operated. This terrible accident could have been avoided if the safety systems had been working."

Train users in Greece regularly complain about the outdated network. The Italian FS group oversees the Hellenic Train, which was privatized in 2018.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis went to the site of the accident, while mourning was declared for three days in Greece.
Greek Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis called on his compatriots to "remain calm".

In the early morning hours, images showed charred vehicles amid sheet metal and shattered windows. Other less damaged vehicles overturned while rescuers used ladders to extract survivors from the wreckage.

The two trains collided at the exit of a small tunnel over which a highway connects the two major cities of Greece.

Greek media reported that the disaster was "the worst railway accident Greece has ever seen".

"The work of the fire and rescue teams is very difficult, as they are looking for ... the charred bodies," said Konstantinos Yanakopoulos, head of the Larissa Doctors' Syndicate, on public television, ART.

"We felt the impact like a violent earthquake," a passenger named Angelos, 22, told AFP at the scene.
"Fortunately, we were in the penultimate carriage and survived. A fire broke out in the front carriages and panic ensued. I had a nightmare... I am still shivering."

A spokesman for the fire brigade said that several vehicles derailed before midnight on Tuesday, north of the city of Larissa, at the level of the Tambeh Valley, after a freight train collided with another carrying 350 passengers.
"Most of the passengers were young people," said Greek Health Minister Thanos Pleveris. Many students were on the train on their way back to Thessaloniki after a long weekend.