Clashes erupted briefly between police and a bunch of demonstrators in central Athens on Sunday on the fringes of a protest by 1000’s of scholars and railway employees over Greece’s deadliest practice crash in dwelling reminiscence.
A small group of protesters hurled petrol bombs at police, who responded with tear fuel and hand grenades, earlier than dispersing to close by streets.
At least 57 folks have been killed and dozens have been injured on Tuesday when a passenger practice with greater than 350 folks on board collided with a freight practice on the identical monitor in central Greece.
After protests over the previous three days throughout the nation, some 10,000 college students, railway employees and teams affiliated with left-wing events gathered in an Athens sq. on Sunday to precise sympathy for the lives misplaced and to demand higher security requirements on the rail community.
“That crime received’t be forgotten,” protesters shouted as they launched black balloons into the sky. A placard learn: “Their insurance policies value human lives.”
The practice, travelling from Athens to the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki, was full of college college students returning after an extended vacation weekend. The catastrophe has triggered an outpouring of anger, in addition to a pointy deal with security requirements.
Railway employees, who additionally misplaced colleagues within the accident, have staged rotating walkouts since Wednesday to denounce cost-cutting and underinvestment within the rail infrastructure, a legacy of Greece’s debilitating debt disaster from 2010 to 2018.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s authorities has blamed human error for the crash. Nevertheless, Mitsotakis stated on Sunday that human error shouldn’t deflect from obligations for a long-suffering railway community.
“As prime minister, I owe everybody, however most of all of the relations of the victims, an apology,” he wrote on Fb. “Justice will very quick examine the tragedy and decide liabilities.”
A station grasp within the close by metropolis of Larissa who was on responsibility on the time of the crash was charged this week with endangering lives and disrupting public transport.
The station grasp, who can’t be named below Greek regulation, appeared earlier than a Justice of the Peace on Sunday after his lawyer requested additional time on Saturday to answer the fees following new data in regards to the case. These proceedings have been ongoing.