LARISSA - The station master of the central Greek city of Larissa was arrested on Wednesday, police said, hours after a head-on collision between two trains that left at least 36 dead.
"The 59-year-old station master was arrested," a local police spokesman told AFP, adding that the charges would be announced shortly.
Several carriages were almost completely destroyed in the collision between a passenger train and a freight train just before midnight on Tuesday, with at least one car appearing to catch fire and trap passengers inside.
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire life," said one rescue worker, emerging from the wreckage. "It's tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies."
Smoke and flames emerged from several cars, some of which had overturned when they came off the tracks in the impact, leaving a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass.
The passenger train, carrying 350 passengers, had been travelling from the capital Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Greek media said it had been carrying many students returning to Thessaloniki after a long holiday weekend.
Some 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were mobilised for the response, according to Greek emergency services.
It is not yet known why the two trains collided in what local media is calling the worst "train accident that Greece has ever known".
"The death toll is likely to be very high", regional governor Kostas Agorastos told the Skai TV channel.
He said the first two carriages on the passenger train "no longer exist at all".