Greek unions call for strike after train tragedy

ATHENS (AP) — Athens and other cities in Greece staged demonstrations on Wednesday to protest the deaths of 57 people in the worst train disaster in the country’s history, which exposed major safety shortcomings.

Unions and student associations organized the protests, while transport strikes suspended ferries to the islands and disrupted public transport in Athens, where some 30,000 people joined the protest.

The metro ran for a few hours to allow people to join the protest in the capital. The strike also closed public primary schools and forced hospitals to operate at reduced capacity.

A passenger train collided with a freight train near the northern city of Tempe on February 28, killing dozens of people, including many university students, in burning cars.

A station master accused of placing trains traveling in opposite directions on the same track has been charged with manslaughter, among other offences.

But the revelation of serious security flaws on the country’s busiest railway line has put Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right executive on the defensive. The politician promised full cooperation with the judicial investigation into the incident.

In Larissa, a city in the center of the country near the site of the accident, students with black balloons chanted “No to the benefits on our lives!”. A municipal music group performed a funeral march while conducting another act in the southern city of Patras.

“It’s more than a train wreck and a tragic train crash. It feels like the country has gone off the rails,” said Nasos Iliopoulos, spokesman for the main left-wing opposition party, Syriza.

Senior officials from a European Union rail agency are expected to arrive in Athens on Wednesday as part of assistance promised by the bloc to help Greece improve the security of its network. The department had already pointed out in the past the delays in putting in place security measures in the country.

German security experts will also visit Greece to help advise the government, Greek Transport Minister George Gerapetritis said.

“I also express my anguish and my pain for what happened in Tempe. It is an unprecedented national tragedy, which has marked us all by its magnitude: the unjustified loss of a large number of human beings said Gerapetritis.

The minister also acknowledged major flaws in security procedures on the night of the incident. Strikes have interrupted rail services since the crash.

Wednesday’s protests were supported by associations of striking civil servants and groups commemorating International Women’s Day.