Fifty-seven folks had been killed when a freight prepare and a passenger prepare full of college students collided in February 2023.
Tens of 1000’s of protesters have rallied exterior Greece’s parliament in Athens to demand justice for the victims of the nation’s worst railway catastrophe almost two years in the past.
Sunday’s demonstration, one of many largest to be held within the capital lately, got here days after after native media launched an audio recording suggesting that a number of the 57 victims may need survived the collision however died in a fireplace of but unknown origin that burned for greater than an hour following the crash.
Protests had been additionally held in dozens of different cities in Greece and overseas, with contributors rallying underneath the “I’ve no oxygen” slogan, which echoed a girl’s final phrases in a name to emergency providers.
Attendees in Athens held banners studying “We gained’t overlook” whereas chants of “Murderers, murderers” reverberated round Syntagma Sq..
A judicial investigation remains to be in progress over the collision of a freight prepare and a passenger prepare full of college students close to Tempe, exterior the town of Larissa, simply earlier than midnight on February 28, 2023.
The crash, on a line linking Athens with Greece’s second-largest metropolis Thessaloniki, triggered indignant protests throughout the nation, the place it was seen as the results of widespread neglect of the railways after a decade-long monetary disaster.
Two years later, the reason for demise of most of the victims has not been decided as their households have accused authorities of attempting to cowl up proof.
“Many due to all of the Greeks, wherever they’re, for his or her assist,” Maria Karystianou – a consultant of the affiliation of households of Tempe victims, who misplaced her 20-year-old daughter within the catastrophe – advised reporters.
“Our voice says one factor: no crime will go unpunished, ever once more,” she mentioned. “Let the crime at Tempe be the start and justice is served, correctly, as a result of that’s what your complete society needs.”
Fireplace’s trigger unclear
Ilias Papangelis, who misplaced his 18-year-old daughter within the crash, advised the group in Athens: “Two years after the tragedy, nobody has been punished, nobody is in jail.”
In response to a report by specialists employed by households, the crash led to an enormous fireball. It’s unclear what brought on it.
A rising variety of specialists have dominated out assumptions that electrical energy cables or oils used within the passenger prepare brought on the hearth, elevating questions over the freight prepare’s cargo.
The centre-right authorities, which was re-elected after the crash, has denied the accusations.
Its proposal of former parliament speaker Constantine Tassoulas for the Greek presidency final week additional angered the relations, who say that underneath his watch parliament failed to research any political accountability.
“We don’t know what brought on the explosion, what the [freight] prepare was carrying,” mentioned Nikos Plakias, who misplaced his two daughters and a niece within the accident.
“We’ll all the time have questions … and if we have to attain the European courts, we are going to,” he added.
Temporary clashes broke out between riot police and a lot of protesters after the largely peaceable demonstration in Athens, with cops firing tear gasoline to disperse some within the crowd.
