36 killed after two trains collide in Greece

Live Correspondent: At least 36 people were killed and 66 were injured after two trains collided head-on in Greece early Wednesday morning, the fire brigade said, but the cause of the deadliest rail crash in Greece in decades remained unclear, report agencies.

An intercity passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided at high speed with a cargo train outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, said the governor of the Thessaly region.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris said most passengers were "young people", with the train carrying many students returning to Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.

Regional governor Kostas Agorastos told the Skai TV channel the death toll was likely to be "very high" and warned that the first two carriages on the passenger train "no longer exist at all".

The impact caused a fire in a number of the passenger carriages.

Thessaly regional governor Konstantinos Agorastos told SKAITV that the first four carriages of the passenger train were derailed in the crash, while the first two carriages, which caught fire, were "almost completely destroyed".

He said the two trains hurtled towards each other on the same track.

"They were travelling at great speed and one (driver) didn't know the other was coming," the governor said.

About 250 passengers were evacuated safely to Thessaloniki on buses. One passenger told state broadcaster ERT he managed to escape after breaking the train window with his suitcase.

"There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming," a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge told SKAI TV. "It was like an earthquake," another passenger, told ERT.