LAST UPDATE | 2 Mar 2023

TWO DAYS AFTER Greece’s worst rail accident, relatives awaiting news of their missing loved ones are in despair while rail workers protest, blaming  government management of the network on the accident.

“No one can tell me anything – if my child is injured or in intensive care or anything,” the mother of a 23-year-old student told AFP.

She was desperately seeking news of her daughter Kalliopi.

The young woman was returning to Thessaloniki from Athens with her boyfriend on Tuesday night when their train crashed head on into a freight train just before midnight.

At least 57 people died in the crash, either burned or crushed to death.

Since Tuesday, Kallopi’s mother has been trying to find out where her daughter is, but neither the authorities in Thessaloniki nor the hospital in Larissa, near where the train derailed, have provided any news.

Staff at Larissa hospital are performing the delicate, heart-breaking task of identifying the corpses.

A woman lays flowers in memory of the victims of the train crash

Meanwhile, about 700 demonstrators massed outside the Athens headquarters of Greek rail operator Hellenic Train to voice outrage and sorrow over the disaster.

The crowd held a moment of silence to honour victims.

“We are angry at the company, at the government and past governments that did nothing to improve conditions in the Greek railway,” said pensioner Stavros Nantis at the protest.

Police said a protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki turned violent, with demonstrators throwing stones and petrol bombs.

Announcing the 24-hour shutdown, the rail union federation denounced a “lack of respect towards Greece’s rail network by successive governments over the years, which led to this tragic result”.

“Unfortunately, our constant requests for more permanent staff, improved training and, above all, the introduction of modern safety technology, were all just ditched,” the rail federation said.

A crane removes debris after the collision in Tempe

Government spokesman Yiannis Economou said an inquiry would examine the “chronic delays in implementing railway works – delays caused by chronic public sector malaise and decades of failure”.

Authorities have pointed to “human error” in seeking to explain the train collision, in which two carriages were demolished and a buffet car caught fire, trapping many victims inside.

“I believe the responsibility, the negligence, the error has been confessed by the station master,” Economou told reporters in Athens.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is seeking re-election this spring, said after visiting the crash site on Wednesday: “Everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error.”

Athens metro employees also walked off the job today for a strike that will last until midnight local time, saying the system suffered from “similar problems” to those of the overland rail network.

The country’s transport minister resigned yesterday.

© AFP 2023