Greek train crash: effort to find bodies expected to end as anger grows

Rescuers are expected to wrap up efforts to find the bodies of victims of a head-on collision of two trains in central Greece, as anger grows over the deadly crash.

Three days after the Thessaloniki-bound passenger train slammed into an oncoming freight train outside the town of Tempe, killing at least 57, the operation to locate missing passengers would likely be concluded, officials said.

Authorities previously announced that 56 people remained unaccounted for in the days that had elapsed since the crash. The high-speed train was carrying more than 350 passengers when it exploded into flames before being thrown off the tracks and into a gorge more than 200 miles (320km) north of Athens.

As hopes faded of finding the living or dead, the focus turned to returning the remains of victims to families. Officials on Friday said with the help of relatives giving DNA samples, 54 victims had been identified, but that the force of the collision was such the process was taking longer than expected. In temperatures that exceeded 1,300C, those travelling in the three worst-hit wagons, at the front of the train, were almost certainly incinerated, with only a young man seated in the area, who has since had multiple operations, surviving.

Friday marked the third day of official mourning in Greece with flags flying at half-mast from the Acropolis, museums and public buildings. But increasingly it is fury that is being felt over a collision widely perceived as preventable.

The crash occurred within minutes of the train pulling out of Larissa, the main junction in central Greece whose arrested stationmaster will testify before a magistrate on Saturday.

A three-member panel of experts was announced on Friday to oversee what has been billed as an independent, cross-party inquiry into the collision. But with critics already alleging a cover-up, the announcement triggered a furious response from political parties. The leftwing main opposition Syriza party countered that if the government had been sincere in creating a non-partisan cross-party committee, it should have sought out proposals from across the political spectrum.