Greek train crash toll rises, rescuers comb wreckage

Protesters clash with police outside the Hellenic Train headquarters in Athens Wednesday. Pic/AFP

Rescuers combed through charred and buckled rail carriages for more victims of Greece's deadliest train crash on Thursday, a disaster that killed at least 46 people and has led to a national outpouring of grief and anger. The high-speed passenger train with more than 350 people on board smashed head-on into a freight train near the city of Larissa late on Tuesday, and temperatures in one carriage had risen to 1,300 Celsius (2,370 F) after it caught fire.

"The most difficult moment is this one, where instead of saving lives we have to recover bodies," 40-year old rescuer Konstantinos Imanimidis told Reuters on the site of the crash, 130 miles (210 km) north of Athens. "Temperatures of 1,200 degrees and more in the carriages cannot allow for anyone to remain alive." Many of the passengers had to kick through windows to escape the flames. To identify some of the victims, relatives had to give DNA samples at a hospital in Larissa, where disbelief turned to anger for some. "Some bastard has to pay for this," one relative shouted.

Also Read: Greek transport minister resigns over train crash

Many of the victims were university students returning home after a long holiday weekend and officials said the death toll was expected to rise further. Scores were injured. The wreck triggered sadness and anger across Greece, where the government has declared three days of national mourning. Protesters hurled rocks at train company offices in Athens in the evening, before being dispersed by volleys of tear gas fired by riot police. Protests also broke out in Thessaloniki.

And on Thursday, trains were brought to a halt in a day of strike against what unions said was successive governments' refusal to hear repeated demands to improve safety standards. Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned on Wednesday, saying he was taking responsibility for the state's long standing failures to fix a railway system he said "was not fit for the 21st century.

46
No of people killed in the crash

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