A strike paralyzed rail traffic on Thursday Greece and the protests multiplied against a sector that accumulates “failures”, as the government admitted after the frontal collision of two trains that left at least 57 dead.
Nearly 700 protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the Hellenic Train rail operator in Athens to express their outrage at the worst rail disaster in the country’s history.
In Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city, there were more than 2,000 protesters, some of whom threw stones and firebombs. A police spokesman said the situation calmed down soon after.
The accident occurred on Tuesday night near Lárisa (center), when a convoy of travelers collided head-on with another of goods on the road that connects Athens with Thessaloniki, the two main cities in the country.
At least 57 people died in the collision, according to the latest police balance on Thursday. In the previous part, there were 48 victims and it is not excluded that new bodies appear in the mass of charred iron from the collision.
“There are 57 dead” and “It is possible that there is someone on the train who has not been declared missing” so far, police spokeswoman Constantia Dimoglidou said.
The authorities decreed three days of national mourning.
Government spokesman Yiannis Economou promised an investigation into the “delays in the execution of railway works caused by the chronic deficiencies of the public sector and decades of failures”.
In Athens, the crowd observed a minute’s silence on Thursday in tribute to the victims.
The demonstrations coincided with a 24-hour strike called by the federation of unions in the sector.
The workers denounce the “disrespect” towards the sector, by successive governments, and attribute to this inconsideration “this tragic result”.
Negligence
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that the accident would be fully investigated. “Everything shows that, unfortunately, the drama is due to a tragic human error”he declared.
The head of the Lárisa railway station, identified as responsible for the catastrophe, was arrested a few hours later.
The 59-year-old man was on duty when the accident occurred and “acknowledged what he did”, confirmed his lawyer. He is exposed to life imprisonment.
The unions assure, however, that they have been pointing out the security deficiencies on this road for years.
The Minister of Transport resigned a few hours after the tragedy and his replacement offered his “apologies” to the families of the victims.
Five years after the privatization of the railway company Hellenic Train, which was sold to the Italian group Ferrovie dello Statto (FS), the security systems have still not been automated.
“Calvary”
A fire spokeswoman told AFP that rescue teams worked through the night to find any survivors.
The chances of finding them alive decreases over time, he insisted.
“It was a train full of students, young people in their twenties”stated Costas Bargiotas, a doctor at the Lárisa hospital.
The dining car caught fire and the temperature inside reached 1,300º C, according to firefighters. Many corpses were burned.
“No one could give me information. About whether my daughter was injured, whether she was in intensive care. Nothing”lamented the mother of a 23-year-old student who was traveling on the train.
Together with her husband, she carried out a DNA test to find out if her daughter is among the charred or crushed bodies.
“We will not have quick answers”the doctors warned him.
Her husband, Lazaros, 49, says he found out about the accident on television. “I woke up my wife and asked her if our daughter was not traveling on that train. At that moment our ordeal began.”counted.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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