Minister resigns after crash

Head-on collision kills many young people following holiday weekend

Greece's minister for infrastructure and transport has resigned following a train crash on Tuesday night that left at least 40 people dead and dozens more injured.

Police have also arrested the stationmaster of the city of Larissa and charged him with manslaughter after the collision between a passenger train, going from Athens to Thessaloniki, and a freight train, which were traveling on the same track near the town of Tempe, around 380 kilometers north of the capital, Athens.

"When something so tragic happens, it is impossible to continue and pretend like it didn't happen," said the minister, Kostas Karamanlis. "This is called political responsibility.

"For that reason, I announce my resignation as infrastructure and transport minister", adding that he was "taking the responsibility for the Greek state's and Greek political system's mistakes over the course of history".

Survivors of the collision described seeing passengers thrown through the windows of the train by the force of the collision and derailment, and rescue crews worked through the night to try and locate more survivors.

The Al Jazeera news network reported that rescuers were seen wearing headlamps to see through thick smoke, moving mangled pieces of wreckage, in the hope of finding more people alive.

"There were many big pieces of steel," Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene, was quoted as saying by the Euronews website. "The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains."

Officials at a hospital in Larissa reported that at least 25 of those injured were in a serious condition, and a reporter at the crash site, Elli Kasholi, told the BBC as many as 25 more people remained unaccounted for, but it could be that they had survived but left the area.

Regional governor Kostas Agorastos called it "a terrible night …it's hard to describe the scene", with deputy health minister Mina Gaga saying it was "a terrible tragedy that is hard to comprehend".

"I feel so sorry for the parents of these kids," she added, amid reports that many of the passengers on the train had been students returning to university after a public holiday.

Roubini Leontari, chief coroner at Larissa's general hospital, also told local media that the dead were mostly young people, some burned beyond recognition, as an appeal for blood donors was issued.

Greece's President Katerina Sakellaropoulou cut short an official visit to Moldova after hearing about the incident, and in a statement said: "We find ourselves in front of a senseless tragedy … we are mainly mourning young people."

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the scene on Wednesday morning, and three days of national mourning have been declared.