At least 32 people are dead and 85 others injured after two trains collided near the city of Larissa in Greece late on Tuesday night.

Multiple train carriages derailed and at least three caught fire after the crash near Tempe, some 235 miles north of Athens, close to midnight. Hospital officials in Larissa said at least 25 people had serious injuries.

The fire brigade confirmed the fires had been extinguished, adding "some passengers" had been pulled from the wreckage unconscious after the crash.

In the early hours of Wednesday, rescue crews were still searching for survivors. Local media reported about 350 people were travelling on the passenger train, which departed Athens around 7.30pm local time.

"The evacuation of passengers is under way in very difficult conditions given the severity of the collision of the two trains," fire brigade spokesperson, Vassilis Varthakogiannis, said in a televised address.

Broadcaster SKAI showed footage of derailed carriages, badly damaged with broken windows and thick plumes of smoke, as well as debris strewn across the road. 

Rescue workers were seen carrying torches in carriages looking for trapped passengers. 

"We are living through a tragedy. We are pulling out people alive, injured...there are dead. We are going to be here all night, until we finish, until we find the last person," a volunteer rescue worker told ERT.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train cars due to the impact. They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks.

"There was panic in the carriage, people were screaming," a young man who was evacuated to a nearby bridge told SKAI TV.

"It was like an earthquake," Angelos Tsiamouras, another passenger, told ERT.

Konstantinos Agorastos, governor of the broader Thessaly region, told SKAI TV the two trains collided head on - a passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki, and a cargo train from Thessaloniki to Larissa.

"The collision was very strong," he said, adding that the first four carriages had derailed, while the first two were "almost completely destroyed".

“This is a terrible night ... It’s hard to describe the scene. The front section of the train was smashed ... We’re getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There's debris flung all around the crash site."

Mr Agorastos said 40 passengers were taken to hospital with injuries, while about 250 were evacuated to Thessaloniki on buses.

Police took the names of survivors as they arrived in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

A teenage survivor, who did not give his name, told Greek reporters as he got off one of the buses that just before the crash, he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.

“Our carriage didn’t derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed,” he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first carriage caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his carriage, the fourth, and escape.

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.