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At daybreak, the magnitude of the serious accident only becomes clear: the accident site is like a field of rubble, the front carriages of both trains almost collapsed from the impact and partially burned out, as drone images on the Greek state television shows. At least 35 people were killed in a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train in central Greece on Tuesday evening. At least 66 passengers were taken to nearby hospitals, some of them seriously injured.

The death toll could still rise. On Wednesday morning, the salvage work continued with cranes and heavy equipment and also with sniffer dogs. Rescue workers and reporters on the scene are stunned. How is it possible that the Intercity from Athens to Thessaloniki with about 350 passengers on board was running on the same track as the oncoming freight train, while the route has been widened to two lanes?

The railway boss in charge of the section had already been arrested, state television said. Other railway workers and technicians would be questioned. The traffic authority of the nearby city of Larisa has launched an investigation into the cause of the accident. Many connecting railway lines were temporarily closed to rail traffic.

Meanwhile, desperate relatives gathered at the train station in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki at night and telephone hotlines were set up. Many of the dead can reportedly only be identified by DNA testing. About 200 passengers, who were not or only slightly injured, were taken by bus from the scene of the accident to Thessaloniki, 150 kilometers away. But some relatives waited in vain. Many of the passengers were said to be young people, students on their way to the University of Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.

“I thought I was going to die,” a passenger told Kathimerini newspaper. According to his own statements, the young man was in one of the rear wagons. He sought protection on the ground, people screamed and cried. Other passengers reported smashing the windows and getting out of the half-overturned carriage in the dark.

Despite modernization with new bridges and tunnels and two tracks along the entire 500-kilometer Athens-Thessaloniki route, there are significant problems with the electrical coordination of traffic control, state television said. “Just like before, we drive from one part of the route to the other by radio. The station managers give us the green light,” Kostas Genidounias, president of the train drivers’ union, told state radio. He could not say why this happens and why no modern operating system works. The Hellenic Railways (Hellenic Train) is operated by the Italian state railway Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS). (sda/dpa)