Greek transport minister resigns following deadly train crash

Kostas Karamanlis has resigned as Greece's minister for infrastructure and transport, BBC has reported.

He said in a statement: "When something so tragic happens, it is impossible to continue and pretend like it didn't happen...

"This is called political responsibility.

"For that reason, I announce my resignation as Infrastructure and Transport minister.

"It is what I feel as a duty to do, as a mark of respect toward the memory of the people who died so unfairly, and taking the responsibility for the Greek state's and Greek political system's mistakes over the course of history."

"From the deepest of my heart, I express my sorrow and my support to the families of the victims," he added.

In the country's deadliest rail crash in living memory, a Greek passenger train collided head-on with a cargo train late Tuesday, throwing entire carriages off the tracks and killing at least 36 people, many of them students, reports Reuters.

Officials predicted that the death toll would rise further as temperatures in one carriage reached 1,300 degrees Celsius after it was engulfed in flames.

Passengers described a "nightmarish" crash that shattered their train near the central town of Larissa shortly before midnight. After a long holiday weekend, it was on its way from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Many kicked through windows to escape the inferno, others were flung up to 40 metres on impact.

"There was panic... the fire was immediate... we were being burned as we turned over, fire was right and left," said Stergios Minenis, a 28-year-old passenger who jumped to safety from the wreckage.

Another escaped passenger from the fifth carriage told Skai TV: "People were screaming and smashing windows... The impact of iron from the other train caused one of the windows to cave in."

As investigators tried to figure out why the two trains were on the same track, a station master was arrested.