Clashes erupted briefly between police and a gaggle of demonstrators in central Athens on Sunday as hundreds of scholars and railway employees protested over Greece’s deadliest practice crash in residing 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 individuals have been killed and dozens have been injured on Tuesday when a passenger practice with greater than 350 individuals on board collided with a freight practice on the identical observe in central Greece.
After protests over the previous three days throughout the nation, some 10,000 college students, railway employees and teams affiliated with leftist 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 won’t be forgotten,” protesters shouted as they launched black balloons into the sky. A placard learn: “Their policies cost human lives.”
The practice, touring from Athens to the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki, was filled with 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’ authorities has blamed human error for the crash. However, Mitsotakis mentioned Sunday that human error shouldn’t deflect from duties for a long-suffering railway community.
“As prime minister, I owe everyone, but most of all the relatives of the victims, an apology,” he wrote on Facebook. “Justice will very fast investigate the tragedy and determine liabilities.”
A station grasp within the close by metropolis of Larissa who was on obligation 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 underneath Greek legislation, appeared earlier than a Justice of the Peace Sunday after his lawyer requested additional time on Saturday to reply to the fees following new info in regards to the case. Those proceedings have been ongoing.
Railway employees’ unions say security programs all through the rail community have been poor for years as a distant surveillance and signaling system has not been delivered on time. They have referred to as on the federal government to supply a timetable for the implementation of security protocols.
Mitsotakis mentioned Sunday that if there had been a distant system in place all through the rail community “it would have been, in practice, impossible for the accident to happen.”
Greece would quickly announce motion, he mentioned, including that Athens would search experience from the European Commission and different international locations on bettering rail security.
Pope Francis mentioned on Sunday his ideas have been with the crash victims. “I pray for the dead, I am close to the injured and their relatives, and may Our Lady comfort them,” he mentioned in his weekly deal with to crowds in St. Peter’s Square, Rome.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
