Stationmaster arrested after Greece train crash kills 36

A police statement identified the suspect only as a 59-year-old man

A station master has been arrested following a train crash that left at least 36 people dead, Greek police have said.

A police statement identified the suspect only as a 59-year-old man, and did not release his name. Another two people have been detained for questioning.

The local station master for the city of Larissa, in charge of signalling, has been charged with causing mass deaths through negligence and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence, a police official said.

Rescuers operate at the site of a crash, where two trains collided, near the city of Larissa, Greece (REUTERS)

A high-speed passenger train carrying hundreds of passengers collided with an oncoming freight train in Greece near the city of Larissa on Tuesday night. The crash left at least 85 people injured and 66 people hospitalised, of whom six are in intensive care.

The two trains had been running towards each other on the same track “for many kilometres” before the crash, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said.

Yiannis Ditsas, head of the Greek railway workers union, told Skai television that automatic signalling at the spot of the crash had not been working. There was no immediate official comment on this.

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.

The Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned following the crash, saying he felt it was his “duty” to step down.

The cause of the crash, which threw entire carriages off the tracks, has not been confirmed.

Officials said the death toll was expected to rise further as temperatures in one carriage rose to 1,300 Celsius after it was engulfed in flames.

Many passengers kicked through windows to escape the inferno, others were flung up to 40 metres on impact or thrown through the windows of the train.

The passenger train was carrying 342 travellers and 10 crew, while two crew were on the cargo train, according to Hellenic Train data. About 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses.

The train was carrying many university students returning home from a long weekend marking the start of Greek Orthodox Lent.

Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision just before midnight on Tuesday near the town of Tempe, as the passenger train was emerging from a highway underpass.

An official with Hellenic Train official told Reuters that an investigation has been started by the police and a prosecutor into the cause of the accident and investigators are now trying to understand why the two trains were on the same track.

“There were many big pieces of steel,” said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. “The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.”

“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,” Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a spokesperson for Greece’s firefighting service said.

Dozens of ambulances have been alerted in the area as rescue efforts have continued through thick plumes of smoke to rescue any survivors from the wreckage.

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

The crash is Greece’s deadliest in decades.