KATERINI/ATHENS – Families and mates, wearing black, clung to one another, in tears, because the coffin of a 34-year-old mom killed in Greece’s deadliest practice crash was lifted up the steps of a church on Friday.
The first identified funeral after Tuesday evening’s accident, which killed at the very least 57, happened within the northern city of Katerini, as police mentioned 52 our bodies had up to now been recognized – nearly all from DNA exams because the crash was so violent.
Carriages had been thrown off the tracks, a few of them crushed and engulfed in flames, when a passenger practice and one carrying freight collided on the identical monitor at excessive pace in central Greece.
There had been greater than 350 folks on board the passenger practice, a lot of them college college students going again to the northern city of Thessaloniki from the capital Athens after a protracted vacation weekend.
Anger has grown throughout the nation over the crash, which the federal government has attributed to human error however which unions say was inevitable attributable to lack of upkeep and defective signaling.
After night protests over the previous two days, some 2,000 college students took to the streets in Athens on Friday, blocking the street in entrance of parliament for a second of silence.
Clashes broke out with some protesters who threw petrol bombs and set rubbish bins on fireplace. Police responded with volleys of teargas.
Students additionally demonstrated in Larissa, the central metropolis close to the place the crash happened.
Students held up black balloons. One placard learn: “It was not an accident, it was murder.” The phrase “Murderers” was painted in crimson on the road.
“Most of all we feel rage that this could happen in the year 2023, how two trains can collide… when there is so much technology,” mentioned 21-year-old scholar Aggelos Thomopolous.
“How do you think I feel? It’s a disgrace,” mentioned one other scholar, 18-year-old Maria Choremi. “All of Greece is crying from morning until evening while they sit in their offices drinking coffee,” she mentioned, referring to politicians.
Outside the hospital in Larissa, the place lots of the victims had been taken, the mother and father of a 22-year-old man waited in anguish for affirmation of what had occurred to their son.
“They killed him, that is what happened. They are murderers, all of them,” Panos Routsi mentioned.
Not lengthy earlier than the crash, his son Denis had advised him he could be late and would name. “I’m still waiting,” Routsi mentioned.
Denis had travelled to Athens to see mates. His mom, Mirela, confirmed reporters an image on her cellular of her son beaming.
On Friday, 38 passengers had been nonetheless being handled in hospital, seven of them in intensive care.
Railway staff who started a strike on Thursday prolonged their walkout by one other 48-hours on Friday.
‘Call me if you get there’
In college yards in Athens, college students used their baggage to write down the phrases “Call me when you get there,” a phrase that has turn into one of many protest slogans.
Protesters additionally wrote the slogan in candles outdoors parliament.
Larissa’s 59-year-old station grasp was arrested and has admitted to some duty, his lawyer mentioned, whereas stressing he was not the one one responsible.
“The federation has been sounding alarm bells for so many years, but it has never been taken seriously,” the primary railworkers’ union mentioned, demanding a gathering with the brand new transport minister, appointed after the crash with a mandate to make sure such a tragedy can by no means occur once more.
The union mentioned it wished a transparent timetable for the implementation of security protocols.
Opposition politicians additionally began to voice criticism.
“Any effort to hide and cover up the truth over the Tempi tragedy is disrespecting the dead and foretelling new tragedies,” mentioned Popi Tsapanidou, a spokesperson for the leftwing Syriza, Greece’s predominant opposition get together.
Before the crash, the federal government had mentioned that an election could be held within the spring, with media citing April 9 because the probably date. Political analysts say that plan may now be pushed again. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
