At least 43 people have been killed after a passenger train and freight train collided in Greece, in one of the country's worst rail accidents
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said in an address to the nation that it appears the accident was due to "tragic human error"
Transport minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned, saying it's impossible to continue after something so tragic
He says he is taking responsibility for the failures of the Greek state
The local stationmaster has been charged with manslaughter
Rescuers are continuing to search for survivors at the scene near the city of Larissa
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Image source, EPAWe’ll be coming to the end of today’s live coverage shortly, but if you’re just joining us, or are in need of a recap, here’s an update of some of the key developments following the rail crash in Greece on Tuesday night:
Image source, ReutersSeveral hundred members of left-wing and student groups took part in a demonstration in Athens on Wednesday evening to protest the train deaths.
Many of the protesters then gathered outside the headquarters of Hellenic Train, where they held candles in memory of the victims of the crash.
Emotional transport secretary vows "nothing left under the carpet"
Before resigning, the transport minister vowed that an investigation into the crash will have 'transparency".
Speaking at the scene of the accident, Kostas Karamanlis said that out of respect for the dead he will not speculate on the cause of the crash.
Panagiotis Stafylos was supposed to be in the passenger train's second carriage
We reported earlier on what happened to Giannis Antonoglou, who was in the fifth carriage of the train when it crashed and managed to get out of the train unaided and unhurt.
Also in that carriage was Panagiotis Stafylos, who had a ticket for the second compartment but had made a "simple mistake" - confusing the numbers.
The first and second carriages of the train were “almost completely destroyed” in the collision with a freight train, according to the regional governor.
The fifth, however, managed to stay on the rails.
He told the BBC that “out of pure luck maybe, or call it God" he wasn't among those who were injured or killed in the crash.
Stafylos says people in his carriage were anxious following the incident and he tried to help and calm them down before trying to escape, which took about half an hour.
“At first we broke the windows, but we didn’t have the right tool for it... so we tried to break one of the doors open.”
Eventually, the emergency services arrived to help them get to safety.
Stafylos says that before the train crashed, it had stopped for about 15 minutes at Larissa station, but he didn’t think anything of this at the time because delays are normal in Greece.
Image source, ReutersGreek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras gave blood to help those injured in the crash
As we reported, earlier today Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the scene of the crash in Tempi.
The leader of the opposition Alexis Tsipras - who is also a former prime minister - also surveyed the damage at the crash site and went to a hospital in the nearby city of Larissa where victims have been sent.
The Syriza party leader gave an emergency blood transfusion as part of a drive to help the injured.
"These are moments of deep grief and sorrow,” he told reporters.
“The images I saw are shocking. We are experiencing a senseless tragedy with dozens dead and missing, including unfortunately young people.
"At a time when we are counting the casualties and mourning, I do not want to talk about responsibility, we will talk about that when it's time.”
The death toll from the train crash has now reached 43, Rubrini Leontari, the chief coroner at Larissa’s general hospital, told local media.
Nick Beake
Reporting from Central Greece
I’ve just been talking on the phone to a surgeon at a hospital where many survivors were taken. Lots of their injuries were broken bones as well as burns, as is to be expected in this horrific crash. The medical teams have been working flat out.
We’ve also just been sent a video from earlier of dozens - if not hundreds - of students outside the university hospital who have been responding to the call to donate blood - there are long queues of people waiting patiently and registering their details before heading inside.
The search will continue overnight and there are currently 72 firefighters taking part, alongside five specialist disaster response teams, the Greek fire service has said.
Cranes are still working to move carriages to aid the search, but the extreme heat caused by the fire in one carriage has made the search and identification process much harder.
After the fire service update, police said 17 DNA samples have been taken from bodies of the victims so far, and 23 samples from relatives of the passengers, which are being used to help identify missing people from the crash.
More than 70 officers have been deployed to the scene to help with evidence gathering, with material so far collected from the local police office in Larissa, the scene of the accident and other "points of interest", they said.
Police have also been collecting the personal belongings and luggage of the passengers from the scene of the accident.
Image source, Kyriakos MitsotakisIn his address to the nation, Mitsotakis said the crash will “stay forever in our collective memory”, adding that it was unprecedented in the country’s history.
He also thanked first responders, including firefighters, rescuers, members of the health system, police and local officials.
Mitsotakis promised to get to the bottom of what happened, and said he has called for an independent investigation to be conducted.
“Justice will do its job. People will be held accountable, while the state will be on the side of the people,” he said, urging the public to “stay united during this tragedy”.
Mitsotakis has blamed human error for the collision.
"Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error," he said in a televised address.
The prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has begun an address to the nation about the train crash.
Stick with us and we'll bring you any key lines or updates from his remarks.
More from the Greek fire service now, who also say of the 72 people admitted to hospital after the crash, 15 have been released.
Of the 57 people still being treated for their injuries, six remain in critical condition and are being treated in an intensive care unit, the fire service said.
Two more people have been confirmed to have died, taking the total death toll of the collision to 38 people, the Greek fire service has confirmed.
Relatives of people who are still missing following the train crash have provided DNA samples to help the identify bodies of those who have died, a hospital in the nearby city of Larissa has confirmed.
The local fire department previously said the the train car which caught fire hit temperatures of 1,300C (2,370F), while Larissa's mayor Apostolos Kalogiannis has indicated some of those who died would only be identifiable via DNA testing.
A short time ago ago, doctors at the general hospital in Larissa told journalists that 33 people have given DNA samples, with many relatives currently waiting outside to hear news about their loved ones.
Authorities are also trying to establish if the bodies of missing passengers have been taken to the general hospital or to the nearby university hospital, adding to their difficulties establishing exactly how many have died.
If you're just joining us or need a recap, here is what we've learned about the deadly train crash in Greece:
Read more here.
Image source, .
Image source, ReutersGermany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz is among those offering their condolences following the train collision.
“We mourn with our Greek friends, and our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. We wish you great strength at this difficult time,” he wrote on Twitter.
Italy’s Prime Minister has shared a similar message.
“The Italian government sends condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to all the injured,” said Giorgia Meloni.
The BBC's Live With Lucy Hockings programme has been speaking to a survivor of the crash who was in the fifth carriage of the passenger train.
Giannis Antonoglou says this was the first of the compartments not to be completely derailed, although it ended up at a 45-degree angle “as if about to tip”.
Within 10 minutes of the crash, the doors of the carriage opened and he was able to get out.
“We couldn’t see anything but flames and smoke,” Giannis says.
“People were panicking and screaming – some people were afraid they were going to die.”
He and a handful of other survivors then went to help some of those injured and says ambulances and other emergency personnel didn’t turn up “for at least an hour”.
Giannis estimates that half of the people on the train were young.
“I’m still in shock, obviously, but thankfully I’m completely unharmed so I’ve nothing to complain about.”
He says a friend who was travelling in the same carriage as him is also okay, but he fears for someone he knows who was in one of the carriages ahead.
Turkey’s foreign ministry has offered its sympathies to the relatives of those killed in what it has described as a "tragic accident" - as well as to the people and government of Greece in general.
"We have learned with sorrow that many people lost their lives and were injured last night as a result of a train crash in our neighbour Greece", the ministry said in a statement.
The two countries have recently been experiencing a slight thaw in diplomatic relations after being at odds for decades over a range of issues including territorial rights and migration.
Greece recently sent aid to southern Turkey following the deadly earthquakes there.
The head of the union that represents workers from Greece’s Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) says the initial conclusion from an investigation into the crash is that it happened due to human error.
However, according to local media, Nikos Tsikalakis also says that more than one factor is needed for such an incident to happen and that the complete picture of circumstances is not yet known.
In an interview with Radio ENA, he referenced a lack of workers in the rail network - saying that while there should be more than 2,000 employees nationally, there are currently only 750.