Eleni Zaggelidou, one of ten coroners engaged in the investigation, said DNA samples were taken from 57 intact corpses.
A government minister claimed that austerity during Greece’s economic crisis in the 2000s contributed to a shortage of railway investment.
Rail employees held a one-day strike on Thursday following the disaster, blaming government neglect.
More than 2,000 people demonstrated in Athens and Thessaloniki for a second day in reaction to the tragedy in Larissa.
“We are angry at the company, at the government, and previous governments that did nothing to improve conditions in the Greek railway,” said pensioner Stavros Nantis in Athens.
Searching for victims, rescue personnel continue to comb through charred and buckled carriages.
This was the “most difficult moment,” according to rescuer Konstantinos Imanimidis, because “instead of saving lives, we have to recover corpses.”
Tuesday, just before midnight, a passenger train carrying 350 passengers collided with a freight train after both trains wound up on the same track, causing the front carriages to catch fire.
At 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), the railway workers’ strike started, disrupting national rail services and the subway in Athens.
Many Greeks view the collision as an accident waiting to happen, and the union blames successive governments’ “disrespect” for Greek railways for this “tragic result.”
During a visit to a hospital where relatives of the missing had gathered, Zoe Rapti, Greece’s deputy minister of health, told that the Greek debt crisis around 2010 had made it more difficult to invest in the rail network. This crisis led to severe austerity measures in exchange for financial rescue from the EU and IMF.
“Of course, things should have been done during these years, but as you may recall, Greece endured a significant economic crisis for more than ten years, which means that many things reverted,” she said.
She stated that a “comprehensive investigation” would be conducted, which she promised would yield results.
Giannis Oikonomous, a spokesman for the government, added that decades-long “distortions” in the country’s public sector were to blame for “chronic delays” in implementing rail projects.
A 59-year-old station master from Larissa faces negligent murder charges on Thursday. His attorney, Stefanos Pantzartzidis, stated outside the courthouse that he has confessed to a portion of responsibility for the accident.
“He is utterly distraught. Since the first moment, he has assumed responsibility proportionate to him.” Mr. Pantzartzidis suggested that the station master, who has not been formally named, was not the only one to blame.
Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned in response to the accident, stating that he would assume responsibility for the authorities’ “longstanding failures” to repair a railway system that was unfit for the twenty-first century.
However, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ suggestion that “tragic human error” was to blame has sparked outrage.
On Wednesday night, demonstrators clashed with police outside the headquarters of Hellenic Train in Athens – the company responsible for maintaining Greece’s railways.
Tear gas was used to disperse demonstrators who threw stones and lit fires in the streets.
At a solemn vigil in Larissa to mourn the victims, one protester said the tragedy was long overdue.
Nikos Savva, a medical student from Cyprus, told AFP: “The rail network appeared problematic, with worn-out, poorly compensated personnel.”
He argued that the detained station master should not pay the price “for an entire failing system.”
Many of the passengers were students in their 20s returning to Thessaloniki after a long weekend celebrating Greek Orthodox Lent.
Fire brigade spokesperson Vassilis Varthakogiannis stated that temperatures inside the first carriage. Which caught fire, reached 1,300C (2,370F), making it “difficult to identify the individuals who were inside.”
More than ten persons are still missing, according to local media, as Greece observes three days of national mourning.
Families have provided DNA samples to aid in identification efforts; results are anticipated on Thursday.
Reuters reports that Katerina, a woman seeking for her missing brother. A train passenger yelled “Murderers!” outside Larissa Hospital, directing her rage at the government and rail company.
Kostas Malizos, a recently retired surgeon and Emeritus Professor at the Greece’s University of Thessaly, has returned to work to conduct surgery on injured passengers.
“It’s a catastrophe, it’s catastrophic,” he said. “Families are weeping tonight. Unfortunately, the preponderance of the missing individuals is young students. They departed home, elated after a long weekend, to pursue their studies or visit relatives, but they never arrived.”
