New wave of protests in Greece following a train accident

ATHENS (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday to protest security flaws in Greece’s rail network nearly two weeks after dozens of people were killed in the worst train crash in the history of the country.

Protesters also demanded punishment for those responsible for the head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train that killed 57 people on February 28. Police said more than 8,000 people gathered outside Parliament in Athens on Sunday.

Later, protesters marched to the offices of rail operator Hellenic Train. The company, which has been owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane since 2017, is not responsible for maintaining the rail network, a task that falls to parastatal Hellenic Railways.

Authorities closed four metro stations and two lines running through central Athens due to the protests.

Civil servants, a pro-communist trade union and university students were responsible for organizing the march.

In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second most populous city, around 5,000 people demonstrated, listening to speeches and shouting slogans such as “We will be the voice of all the dead”.

Sunday’s protests, which passed without serious incident, were not as popular as similar events earlier in the week, with more than 30,000 people taking part in Athens and more than 20,000 in Thessaloniki. Police reported the arrest of four people in Athens.

A funeral service was held for 12 students from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who died in the train crash.

An inexperienced station master accused of putting trains on the same track is already facing charges of negligent homicide and other crimes, and the country’s transport minister and other senior railway officials tendered their resignation the day after the accident.

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Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Athens and Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed to this report.