Greece train crash death toll rises: 46 dead found

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Rescuers combed the charred and crumpled railcars looking for victims of Greece's deadliest train crash on Thursday.

composition near the city of Larisa late on Tuesday evening. After a fire as a result of a collision, the temperature in one of the cars rose to 1300 degrees Celsius, which left no chance for passengers to escape.

Many passengers had to break windows to escape the fire. In order to identify some of the victims, relatives had to take DNA samples at the Larisa hospital, where some of the distrust turned into anger and demands for reprisals against the perpetrators of the tragedy.

Many of the victims were university students, returning to school after a long holiday weekend. The government declared three days of national mourning.

Officials said the death toll is expected to rise. Dozens of people were injured.

Protesters threw stones at the offices of the railway company in Athens in the evening before being dispersed by police using tear gas. Protests also erupted in Thessaloniki. each other's governments to listen to repeated demands to improve safety standards.

The head of Larissa's station was arrested on Wednesday while investigating circumstances that led to a collision between a passenger train bound for the northern city of Thessaloniki and another train carrying cargo containers. going in the opposite direction along the same path. He will appear before a local judge on Thursday.

In a televised address Wednesday night, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had previously visited the crash site, said the evidence points to human error.

Nikos Tsuridis, a retired machinist instructor, said human error cannot fully explain what happened.

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