Station master arrested after Greek train disaster in which dozens were killed

Police are not yet saying what the station master is charged with, but he is likely to be held responsible for the head-on collision of the two trains, which were traveling on the same track.

Dual track

It is still unclear exactly how the accident between a freight train and a passenger train with more than 350 people on board could have happened. There was a double track in the path of the collision, but the two trains did not use it.

It appears there was human error in traffic control causing them to collide on the same lane. An employee of the Greek railways tells the Kathimerini newspaper that there were problems with the safety measures which should have prevented accidents like this for a while.

You can watch the first reactions of survivors of the disaster in the video below:

National mourning

He says the automatic signals have not been working for some time and therefore security should only be checked by people. Unions have been calling for a new monitoring system since 2018.

The Greek government has declared three days of national mourning following the train crash.

Rutte: “terrible” news

The Dutch government also responded to the disaster. Prime Minister Mark Rutte describes the accident in Greece as “terrible” news.

Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) also sympathizes with the Greeks. “Very sad to hear of the terrible train crash,” Hoekstra tweeted.

“Our hearts go out to the victims and their loved ones.” He informed his Greek colleague Nikos Dendias that the Netherlands stood by Greece “in this difficult time”.