In Greece’s bloodiest rail catastrophe in living memory, a passenger train smashed head-on with a cargo train late Tuesday, knocking entire carriages off the rails and killing at least 36 people.

Crash and flames wounded many. While one wagon burned to 1,300 Degrees, officials anticipated the death toll to grow.

Investigators arrested a station master for determining why the two trains were on the same track.

The passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki crashed near Larissa after emerging from a tunnel.

“There was panic… the fire was instantaneous, as we were rolling over we were getting scorched, fire was right and left,” said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who escaped to safety from the wreckage.

A fifth-carrier escapee told Skai TV: “Screaming and damaged windows… Iron from the other train broke a window.”

In the morning, rescuers searched the smoldering steel mass as cranes retrieved derailed passenger cars with blown-out windows. One carriage lay on its side approximately 90 degrees from the remainder of the destroyed train while others teetered.

Fire brigade official Vassilis Varthakogiannis said temperatures in the first carriage reached 1,300 Degrees, making it difficult to identify individuals trapped inside.

“The verified number of deaths is 36, but based on these facts and the results from the catastrophe, the number is anticipated to be more.”

While the government designated three days of national mourning, Athens and Brussels displayed flags at half-mast to honor the crash victims.

The casualties were university students returning after a holiday weekend.

“Unimaginable disaster. Now, we think of the victims’ families “At the accident scene, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis looked broken.

A police spokesman stated the signaling station master was detained and accused of causing mass fatalities and serious bodily damage via carelessness.

The official stated the 59-year-old man blamed a technological breakdown for the mishap.

Government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou claimed the trains had been approaching one other “for many miles” before the disaster.

Greek railway workers union leader Yiannis Ditsas told Skai television that automated signaling at the crash site was not operating. This was unreported.

Hellenic Railway statistics showed 342 passengers and ten personnel on the passenger train and two on the freight train.
A fire brigade spokesperson said 66 people were hospitalized, six in intensive care.

Nikos Makris sat on a sidewalk outside the hospital in Larissa, where numerous crash victims were brought. The first two carriages carried his wife’s sister.

“Missing. Since 2 am, “told Reuters. “DNA testing is pending. We’ll be lucky to bury someone,” they said.

One mom hurried to greet her daughter as she exited from a bus with survivors in Thessaloniki.

Daughter: “Mom don’t, I’m hurt.” Another mother waiting reported her child wasn’t answering the phone.

Apostolos Komnos, Larissa hospital’s emergency unit chief, claimed most of the fatalities were in their 20s.

A Reuters correspondent spotted relatives on the hospital’s ground level, some crying and others angry, seeking crash details.

Relatives were informed that unidentified victims would undergo DNA testing.

President Katerina Sakellaropoulou returned from Moldova to Greece.

“Right now, a life-saving effort is going on to save individuals who are aboard this deadly train,” she said at a news conference in Chisinau, Moldova.

Larissa-bound freight train. Local media said the train left Athens at about 7:30 pm (0530 GMT). The fire brigade was notified of the event before midnight.

Greece sold TRAINOSE to Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in 2017 as part of its international bailout program, expecting hundreds of millions of euros to be spent on rail infrastructure.

According to its website, the Italian business provides 342 passenger and commercial flights throughout Greece.

Greece’s outdated railway infrastructure needs signaling, and automatic control systems, and many trains run on single tracks.