Clashes break out as tens of thousands march in Greece to protest train disaster

Tens of thousands of people marched in Athens and cities across Greece on Wednesday to protest the deaths of 57 people in the countrys worst train disaster which exposed significant rail safety deficienciesLabor unions and student associations organised the demonstrations while strikes halted ferries to the islands and public transportation services in Athens where at least 30000 people took part in the protestClashes broke out after the rallies in Athens and two other citiesMore than 20000 people joined rallies in Thessaloniki Greeces secondlargest city where several dozen youths challenged a police cordonTwelve students from the citys university were among the dead in last weeks headon crash between two trainsPolice fired tear gas in the southern city of Patras where a municipal band earlier played music from a funeral march while leading the demonstrationIn the central city of Larissa near the scene of the train collision students holding black balloons chanted No to profits over our livesThe accident occurred on February 28 near the northern Greek town of Tempe A passenger train slammed into a freight carrier coming in the opposite direction on the same line and some of its derailed cars went up in flamesAlso read Strike protests in Greece as anger grows over train crashA stationmaster accused of placing the trains on the same track has been charged with negligent homicide and other offenses and the countrys transportation minister and senior railway officials resigned the day after the crashBut revelations of serious safety gaps on Greeces busiest rail line have put the centerright government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the defensiveHe has pledged the governments full cooperation with a judicial inquiry into the crashThis is more than a train collision and a tragic railway accident You get the sense that the country has derailed Nasos Iliopoulos a spokesperson for Greeces main leftwing opposition party Syriza saidSenior officials from a European Union railway agency were expected in Athens as part of promised assistance to help Greece improve railway safetyThe agency in the past publicly highlighted delays in Greeces implementation of safety measuresSafety experts from Germany also were expected to travel to Greece to help advise the government Greeces new Transport Minister George Gerapetritis saidI too express my anguish and heartbreak over what happened in Tempe This is an unprecedented national tragedy which has scarred us all because of the magnitude of the tragedy this unjustified loss of a great number of our fellow human beings Gerapetritis saidHe acknowledged major omissions in safety procedures on the night of the crash Strikes have halted all national rail services since the collisionWednesdays protests were also backed by striking civil servants associations and groups marking International Womens DaySubways ran for a few hours in Athens to allow people to get to the demonstration The strikes also closed staterun primary schools and had public hospitals operating at reduced capacityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever