Train collision in Greece kills at least 36; station master arrested

ATHENS — A passenger train and a freight train collided late Tuesday in central Greece, killing at least 36 people and leading to the arrest of a station master.

The crash, which also injured 85 people, occurred shortly before midnight in the Tempe Valley in central Greece, the Hellenic Fire Service said. At least 66 of those injured were still hospitalized, six of them in intensive care, as of 10 a.m. local time.

The passenger train was traveling from the capital, Athens, to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, when it and the cargo train collided. The cause remains unknown.

The state broadcaster, ERT, reported that authorities arrested the station master after he was questioned by police in the nearby city of Larissa early Wednesday. By midafternoon, the country’s transportation minister, Kostas Karamanlis, had resigned.

Karamanlis said the Greek railway system was “not up to 21st-century standards” when he took office. “In these 3.5 years we have made every effort to improve this reality,” he said, announcing his resignation. “Unfortunately, our efforts have not been sufficient to prevent such a bad incident. And this is very heavy for all of us and me personally.”

He called stepping down “the minimum sign of respect to the memory of the people who died so unjustly.”

Footage from the crash site showed flames surrounding the derailed train cars, as well as the swirling lights of firetrucks and ambulances nearby. At least two train cars appeared to be tipped sideways near the track, while one was severely dented, with gaping windows, as firefighters worked to extricate passengers.

By 8:30 a.m., at least a dozen people, including rescue workers in uniform, continued to search through rubble at the base of an overturned blue passenger car that remained in an field, according to Reuters footage.

Another passenger car appeared to be mangled as a crane slowly began lifting it. Workers also were seen on live broadcasts moving a body on a stretcher into an ambulance.

Fire service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said the evacuation was “being carried out under very difficult conditions.” A local TV channel reported that some people were still trapped in passenger carriages earlier in the morning.

Greek authorities said they had started identifying victims but did not yet know the exact toll, with at least 194 surviving passengers transferred to Thessaloniki by bus. The transport minister, Karamanlis, had pledged to investigate the cause of the incident.

Some of the injured were taken to hospitals in Larissa, and at least 150 firefighters and dozens of emergency vehicles were dispatched to the site. Residents of Larissa lined up to donate blood after the crash.

Many of the passengers were young, said Apostolos Komnos, the head of the intensive care unit at the General Hospital of Larissa.

Some of the victims were university students, Greek Health Minister Athanasios Plevris said in televised remarks outside the hospital. “This is a terrifying process for parents and relatives who are here. We will help them as much as we can,” he said.

Passengers speaking to the BBC described hearing a “big bang” and escaping the fire that engulfed their train immediately after the collision.

“For 10, 15 seconds it was chaos,” Stergios Minenis, 28, told the BBC. “Tumbling over, fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming, people trapped.”

The U.S. Embassy in Athens said it was not aware of any American victims, adding that it was “deeply saddened by the news of the tragic train collision this morning.” Condolences poured in from world leaders, and European Union flags in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels were lowered to half-staff.

“The whole of Europe is mourning with you,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a tweet Wednesday. “I also wish for a speedy recovery for all the injured.”

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou cut short a visit to Moldova and traveled to the crash site, where she laid white flowers among the wreckage, according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The country announced three days of national mourning.

“We are facing an unimaginable tragedy,” Sakellaropoulou said in a statement posted to her office’s website. “For the most part, we are mourning young people. We share the pain of those who lost loved ones, but we know their pain is so great that comforting words can offer no relief.”

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also visited the site, pledging to probe the causes of the crash and prevent a recurrence of such a tragedy.

“It’s very difficult what we are going through today as a country,” he told reporters. “We are talking about an unspeakable tragedy. First and foremost, our thoughts today are with the relatives of the victims. Our first task is to treat the injured and, from there, to identify the bodies.”

Railway safety in Greece has come under scrutiny in recent years, and the accident late Tuesday is the country’s deadliest, according to local media. A 1968 train collision in the ancient coastal city of Corinth left at least 34 people dead and dozens injured.

Greece had the highest overall railway fatality rate among 29 countries studied in a 2022 safety report by the European Union Agency for Railways, as well as the seventh-highest passenger fatality rate.

Kasulis Cho reported from Seoul, Francis from London and Parker from Washington.