Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits the train crash site on March 1 with Kostas Karamanels, the Greek Minister of Transport. photo credit: AFP
Greece’s prime minister apologized on Sunday to the families of the 57 people killed in the country’s worst train crash, as thousands of furious protesters rallied in Athens and clashed with police.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a message to the nation, “As prime minister, I owe it to everyone, but especially to the relatives of the victims (to apologise).”
“For the Greece of 2023, two trains going in different directions cannot run on the same line and no one notices,” PM Mitsotakis said in a message posted on his Facebook page.
Tuesday’s crash between passenger and goods trains near the city of Larissa has sparked widespread outrage across Greece.
thousands of angry protesters Students, railway workers and public sector workers gathered outside the parliament in Athens on Sunday in response to a call.
AFP Journalists witnessed violent clashes between police and protesters.
They released hundreds of black balloons into the sky in memory of the dead, some bearing the words “Down with killer governments”, while train and metro services were paralyzed by the strike action.
Michaelis Hasiotis, head of the Chartered Accountants Union, said this AFP He felt “an immense anger”, blaming “the thirst for profit, the lack of measures taken to protect the passengers” for the disaster.
Relatives and loved ones of those killed were also expected to gather for a memorial outside Larissa station in central Greece near the crash site on Sunday.
The station master implicated in the disaster was due to appear in court on Sunday, a hearing adjourned from the previous day, where he could face charges of manslaughter by negligence.