Takis Tsafos
dpa
(TNS)
Athens — Dozens of people died in central Greece when a freight train collided with a passenger train on Tuesday night.
At least 36 people were killed in the head-on crash, according to emergency services. Sixty-six people were taken to hospital, some of them with serious injuries.
The Greek government ordered three days of national mourning for the victims.
Rescue workers were using cranes and other heavy equipment to try and lift the derailed train cars to search for survivors, according to reporters at the crash site near the city of Larissa. Images showed that the front two cars of each train had been destroyed and burnt out.
The passenger train coming from Athens en route to the northern port city of Thessaloniki collided head-on with a commercial train travelling in the opposite direction.
The passenger train, the Inter City 62, had departed from the Greek capital at 7:22 pm ( 1722 GMT) on Tuesday evening.
Some 350 passengers were said to have been on board.
The cause of the accident was unclear, although initial speculation point to human error.
According to media reports, the electronic guidance system on the track was not working. There had been problems with it for some time, leaving staff to decide on some stretches which track the trains should go on.
Videos broadcast on local television showed several wrecked train cars at the crash site near the municipality of Tempi.
"There was chaos and incredible noise," a survivor told state broadcaster ERT.
The crash occurred on a line connecting Athens with Thessaloniki that was modernized over the past years.
The railway official responsible for the line was arrested following the crash, ERT reported.
Despite the modernization, which included new tunnels and bridges as well as two tracks along the 500-kilometre route, there were still significant problems with the electric coordination of traffic control, according to the Greek train drivers' union.
"We travel from one part of the line to the next by radio, just like in the old days. The station managers give us the green light," the union's president Kostas Genidounias explained on state radio.
Greece's railway, Hellenic Train, is operated by Italy's state-owned railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
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