ATHENS (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Greeks gathered outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to demand justice in the 2023 killing of 57 people in the country’s worst rail disaster.
Protesters held banners that read “We will not forget” and “I have no oxygen” and repeated a woman’s last words in a call to emergency services published by local media last week.
Protests took place in other cities in Greece and abroad.
A judicial inquiry is ongoing into the head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train packed with students just before midnight on February 28, 2023.
The crash on a line connecting Athens to Greece’s second-largest city Thessaloniki sparked angry protests across the country, where it was seen as the result of widespread neglect of railways after a decade-long financial crisis.
Two years later, the cause of death of many victims was not 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 center-right government, which was re-elected after the crash, has denied the allegations.
Former parliament speaker Constantine Tassoulas’ proposal for the Greek presidency last week further angered relatives, who did not investigate political responsibility after his watch parliament.
According to a report from family experts, the crash resulted in a huge fireball. It’s unclear what caused it. Fears are growing that several victims survived the collision but died in a fire that burned more than an hour after the crash.
A growing number of experts have ruled out suggestions that electrical cables or oils used in the passenger train caused the fire, raising questions about the freight train’s load.
