Thousands of students block traffic in Athens over delays to Tempi rail crash probe

Thousands of high school and university students have blocked traffic in central Athens in an anti-government protest against delays in an investigation into a 2023 rail crash that claimed 57 lives.

Protesters marched through the city centre, chanting “Murderers! Murderers!” as hundreds of police officers, many in riot gear, monitored the march.

“What is happening today is nothing more than a demand – not only for justice – but, for me, an open and cleaner road. For those who will come after us, for us who are older today and are here. We are not just here for ourselves,” said a high school teacher who gave his name only as Pantazi.

“It is for those who will be after us, when we are no longer here. And that is the most important thing – to fight for something better even if you are not there to enjoy it, for others. This is the dispute today.”

The protest in Athens comes just over a week after tens of thousands of people protested in more than 100 cities across the country, the largest protest movement in Greece in more than a decade.

That action came after local media released new audio recording suggesting that dozens of the victims may have died in a fire after the collision.

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

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

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.

But the slowness of that probe has prompted families of the victims 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 on the 26 January 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. 

“We are here today as a club to protest for the 57 dead, to protest against the crime that took place in Tempi, but also for the policy that puts profits first and human lives second,” said student Odisseas Gountaras at the rally in Athens on Friday.

Reporting for Euronews from Athens, George Dimitropoulos said the next mass protest is due to take place on 28 February, the second anniversary of the crash.