Protesters in Greece demand answers two years after 57 killed in Tempi rail disaster

Tens of thousands of people have protested in central Athens to demand justice for the 57 people who were killed in the Tempi rail disaster.

It was the largest protest in Greece in more than a decade and rallies also took place in more than 100 other cities across the country.

The protests come following the release to local media of a chilling new audio recording suggesting that dozens of the victims may have died in a fire after Greece’s worst rail disaster.

It was previously thought all the victims of the February 2023 collision had been killed in the crash.

Demonstrators held banners with the slogan ‘I Have No Oxygen’, which was heard in the newly-released audio.

“As it became clear today, all Greeks desire to have a functional, real, rule of law. We have taken to the streets and we are shouting. We hope that they will hear us all the way to Brussels,” Maria Karistianou, the President of the Association of Relatives of Tempi Victims, told Euronews.

The crash happened just before midnight on 28 February, 2023, when a freight train and a passenger train crashed head-on on the line linking Athens with Thessaloniki.

The collision triggered mass protests across Greece, with many people saying the collision showed the years of neglect of the rail network after a decade-long financial crisis.

A judicial investigation is still ongoing and the cause of death of many of the victims has still not been determined.

That’s prompted families to accuse the government of trying to cover up evidence, something Athens denies.

Greece’s centre-right government headed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis was re-elected three months after the crash and promised to ıslahat the country’s rail network but the European Commission says that so far progress has been slow.

At the Athens protest, a statement from the victims’ families was circulated which claimed the train was carrying an “illegal chemical cargo” which caused the fire after the crash.

“The tragedy in Tempi was not an accident. It was a crime born of indifference, irresponsibility and corruption. A crime which must not go unpunished,” the resolution stated.

The Athens protest was largely peaceful but there were some clashes between police and protesters.

Police say one protester was arrested and that violence started out after groups of hooded men broke away from the crowd and attacked the police with Molotov cocktails and stones. 

Reporting for Euronews, Giannis Giaginis said police used tear gas to break up the crowd.