Disaster with 57 dead
Violent riots after train crash in Greece – Prime Minister asks relatives of the victims for forgiveness
See the video: After a serious train accident in Greece – no more hope for survivors.
STORY: After the serious train accident in northern Greece, the protests in the country continue. Demonstrations broke out again in Thessaloniki and the Greek capital Athens on Thursday. The anger of the people is directed against the authorities and the Greek railway operators. They are accused of neglecting the railway infrastructure and not complying with important safety precautions. Railroad workers went on strike across the country on Thursday to protest safety failures. For years, governments have ignored calls for technical improvements, critics say. Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis had already announced his resignation on Wednesday and thus, according to his own statements, assumed responsibility for failures in the modernization of the railway network. His successor, who was appointed on Thursday, announced that the cause of the accident would be investigated and the railway system would be modernized. Meanwhile, the number of dead after the worst train accident in Greek history has continued to rise. The authorities assumed more than 50 victims on Thursday. On Friday, the emergency services continued their search for victims in the rubble of the two trains that collided. But there is no hope of finding any survivors. Late on Tuesday evening, an Intercity with around 350 people and an oncoming freight train collided head-on. Numerous people were injured. According to information from the authorities and railway workers, there were increasing indications that a railway employee had made the wrong decision in connection with inadequate safety technology.
After the deadly train accident in Greece, the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked the victims’ relatives for forgiveness. Over the weekend, people took to the streets in several cities.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has apologized to the families of the 57 victims of the serious train accident in his country. As Prime Minister, he owes this to everyone, Mitsotakis said in a message to the nation on Facebook on Sunday.
Meanwhile, demonstrators and police clashed violently at a protest rally in Athens. Mitsotakis said he owed it to the victims’ families in particular to “ask for forgiveness.” “It can’t be that in Greece in 2023 two trains run towards each other on the same route and nobody notices it,” he added.
Mitsotakis asks for forgiveness
On the route between Athens and the port city of Thessaloniki, a passenger train and an oncoming freight train collided head-on shortly before midnight on Tuesday evening. It was the worst train accident in the country’s history. Following the accident, the station master of the city of Larisa was arrested. He admitted to having missed the rerouting of the trains. The 59-year-old is charged with negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm. He appeared in court for the first time on Sunday.
According to a report by public television broadcaster ERT, the man only held the post 40 days after completing three months of training. According to the daily newspaper “Kathimerini”, he apparently worked alone at the station for four days before the accident, although it was a holiday weekend with heavy train traffic. Prime Minister Mitsotakis emphasized with a view to the station master: “We cannot, do not want to and must not hide behind human error.”
Greece: Protests after train crash
The railway company Hellenic Train meanwhile defended itself against allegations that the relatives of the victims had been abandoned. The Hellenic Train staff was “at the scene of the accident from the first moment” and worked together with the authorities, civil defense and rescue workers, according to a statement published on Saturday evening. The company spoke of “particularly difficult days” and pointed out that it had lost nine employees in the collision
See the video: Serious train accident with more than 30 dead in Greece – eyewitnesses report.
The accident led to widespread protests in Greece. Over the weekend, people took to the streets in several cities. According to the police, around 12,000 people gathered in front of the parliament in Athens for a protest rally on Sunday morning during the hearing of the station manager. They released hundreds of black balloons into the sky to commemorate those killed in the tragedy.
Riots in Athens
In the meantime, the protests in the capital Athens turned violent. Some demonstrators set garbage cans on fire and threw Molotov cocktails, to which police responded with tear gas and stun grenades, AFP reporters observed. According to police, seven officers were injured and taken to a hospital. Five people were arrested after throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at police officers. The situation in Athens calmed down again in the afternoon.