ATHENS (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to demand justice for the 2023 train crash that killed 57 people in the country’s worst rail accident.
Protesters held banners reading: “We will not forget” and “I have no oxygen”, echoing the last words of a woman in a call to emergency services reported by local media last week.
Protests were also held in other cities in Greece and abroad.
A court investigation is still ongoing due to the head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train loaded with students shortly before midnight on February 28, 2023.
The accident, on the line connecting Athens with Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, sparked angry protests across the country, which is seen as the result of a general neglect of the railways after a decade-long financial crisis.
Two years later, the cause of death of many victims has not been determined. Their families accused the 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 accident, told the crowd.
The center-right government, which was re-elected after the fall, has denied the allegations.
Last week’s nomination of former parliament speaker Constantine Tassoulas for Greek president further angered relatives, who say that under his watch, parliament has not investigated any political accountability.
According to a report by experts hired by the families, the fall resulted in a huge fireball. It is unclear what caused it. Fears are growing that several victims survived the crash but died in the fire that burned more than an hour after the crash.
A growing number of experts are rejecting suggestions that electrical cables or oil used in the passenger train caused the fire, raising questions about the freight train’s load.
