Clashes in Greece as tens of thousands protest train tragedy
- Public anger mounts after Greece’s deadliest rail crash, which killed at least 57 people
- Calls grow louder for the country’s prime minister to quit over last week’s tragedy
Greek police fired tear gas at firebomb-throwing protesters outside parliament as tens of thousands demonstrated over the country’s worst rail tragedy and called on the prime minister to quit.
The accident occurred on February 28 when a goods train crashed head-on with a passenger train, carrying mostly students, killing 57 people while 14 others remain in hospital.
The biggest protests on Wednesday were in Athens, where over 40,000 people flooded the streets, waving banners that read “It’s not an accident, it’s a crime” and “It could have been any of us on that train”.
Outside parliament, dozens of masked, black-clad youths hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at riot police, who responded by firing volleys of tear gas. Demonstrators also torched a van a few blocks away.
In Greece’s second city of Thessaloniki, riot police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters outside the local railway station.
More than 65,000 demonstrators took to the streets nationwide to protest the train crash near the central city of Larissa, according to police.
