The two trains collided shortly before midnight on Tuesday, when a passenger train with about 350 passengers was traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki, and a freight train was traveling in the opposite direction. The train was said to be traveling at a speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour before the collision, Reuters reports. Both trains were destroyed in the accident.

So far, 38 deaths have been confirmed. Another 57 wounded are being treated in hospital, six of them are in critical condition. The number of victims could rise.

The train was full of students returning to universities in Athens and Thessaloniki after an extended weekend due to a public holiday. Around 250 passengers were evacuated to Thessaloniki by bus after the accident.

According to the information available so far from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are no foreign nationals among the victims of the accident, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced.

Mitotakis: An accident caused by human error

After the accident, the Greek authorities declared three days of mourning, canceled all public celebrations, and flags on public buildings will fly at half-mast until Friday. President Katerina Sakelaropoulou she cut short her official visit to Moldova and returned early to Greece.

In Athens, meanwhile, about a thousand people gathered in protests, protesting in front of the offices of the Hellenic Train company. The police dispersed them with tear gas.

Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis meanwhile, he visited the accident site near Larisa. “Everything indicates that the collision unfortunately happened mainly due to human error,Micotakis said in an evening televised address, stressing that the circumstances of the tragic train accident will be fully investigated. He added that he had accepted the resignations of senior officials of the railway operator OSE and its subsidiary ERGOSE.

Greek Minister of Transport Kostas Karamanlis resigned a few hours after the accident. In a statement, he announced that the resignation was his duty and “the least he can do to honor the memory of the victims“. He added that he takes responsibility for “the country’s long-standing mistakes“.

The station master was arrested

The police previously arrested the station master, who is accused of murder and serious bodily injury due to negligence. The 59-year-old, who is responsible for signaling, otherwise denies doing anything wrong and blames the accident on a technical error.

Investigators are trying to find out why the two trains were on the same track when they collided head-on at speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour.

According to Greek media reports, the electronic control system on the track, which was otherwise recently renovated, was not working. They had problems with the system for a long time, so individual station masters were responsible for the correct routing of trains.

It is assumed that the passenger train from the Larisa station was directed to the wrong track, on which the freight train was already. The section where the two trains collided is otherwise a two-track line.

The railway union said the collision was the worst rail accident in the country’s history.

“Chaos, Panic, Nightmare”

A fire broke out in some of the carriages after the collision, with temperatures rising to 1,300 degrees Celsius, a fire brigade spokesman said. Most of the victims could only be identified through DNA analysis.

“There was chaos and incredible noise,” one of the survivors told the Greek state broadcaster ERT. added. One of the passengers said they heard “big bang”followed by 10 seconds “Nightmares”. As he said, they turned around in the wagon until they fell on their side, by which time the fire had started. Another passenger said he managed to escape from the carriage by smashing a window with a suitcase. “It was like an earthquake,” said another passenger.

Updates required

In 1972, 19 people died when two trains collided near Larissa. Reuters writes that Greece’s railway system is in need of modernization. Many trains run on single-track lines, many sections lack signaling.

In 2017, Greece sold the railway operator TRAINOSE to the Italian state railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane as part of an international aid programme. From the sale, Greece expected to invest hundreds of millions of euros in railway infrastructure.