Thousands of young people protested Friday in Greece’s major cities demanding clarification of the events that led to the biggest rail tragedy the country has ever experienced, a head-on collision of two trains that last Tuesday left at least 57 dead.

In Athens, thousands of students and pupils marched through the city center to gather in front of the Hellenic Parliament to demand that “the crime of Tempe,” the town near which the collision occurred, not be covered up.

“We will be the voice of all the deceased” could be read on a banner, while another wrote “Your profits, our dead”.

Mass demonstrations also took place in Larisa, Volos and Thessaloniki, the city that was the final destination of the stricken passenger train.

“Murderers,” a group of protesters wrote in red paint on the facade of the Athens headquarters of Hellenic Train, the company that operates the railroads.

Thousands of students, with black balloons in their hands, sat in front of the Parliament demanding justice and accountability.

Meanwhile, railroad workers’ unions have called a new 48-hour strike for the weekend.

The atmosphere is tense throughout most of Greece, with mourning giving way to public outrage over the failure of the state and the political system to modernize the rail network and ensure safe transport for its citizens.

Thirty-eight people remain hospitalized, most of them students aged between 20 and 25, and seven are in intensive care.

According to the police, 52 of the 57 fatalities have been identified so far, while there is still no official quantification of those still missing.

The accident occurred shortly before midnight on Tuesday, when two trains – one with 342 passengers and 10 railway employees and another freight train with two drivers on board – collided near the town of Tempe, some 300 kilometers north of Athens.

Italy’s state-owned Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane operates Hellenic Train, although the country’s railway infrastructure, including safety systems, is under the control of the state-owned Railways (OSE).

 

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