ATHENS (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to demand justice over a train crash in 2023 that killed 57 people in the country’s worst railway disaster.
The protesters held banners reading: “We won’t forget” and “I have no oxygen,” echoing a woman’s last words in a call to emergency services published by local media last week.
Protests were held in other cities in Greece and abroad.
A judicial investigation is still in progress over the head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train packed with students just before midnight on Feb. 28, 2023.
The crash, on a line linking Athens with Greece’s second-largest city Thessaloniki, triggered angry protests across the country where it was seen as the result of widespread neglect of the railways after a decade-long financial crisis.
Two years later, the cause of death of many of the victims has not been determined. Their families have accused authorities of trying to cover up evidence.
“Two years after the tragedy, no one has been punished, no one is in prison,” Ilias Papangelis, who lost his 18-year-old daughter in the crash, told the crowd.
The centre-right government, which was re-elected after the crash, has denied the accusations.
Its proposal of former parliament speaker Constantine Tassoulas for the Greek presidency last week further angered the relatives, who say that under his watch parliament failed to investigate any political responsibility.
According to a report by experts hired by families, the crash led to a huge fireball. It is unclear what caused it. Fears are growing that several victims survived the collision but died in a fire that burned for more than an hour after the crash.
A growing number of experts have ruled out assumptions that electricity cables or oils used in the passenger train caused the fire, raising questions over the freight train’s cargo.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Alkis Konstantinidis; Additional reporting by Yannis Souliotis, writing by Renee Maltezou; editing by Giles Elgood)
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