Grief and anger after the deadly train crash is growing in Greece, where thousands of protesters have now gathered outside the parliament building in Athens. On Sunday, they once again collide with the police.
Earlier on Sunday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis – who hopes to be re-elected later this year – asked the families of the victims for forgiveness.
“As Prime Minister, it is my duty to ask everyone, but especially the families of the victims, for forgiveness,” he writes in a message addressed to the nation.
The question is whether the Greeks are satisfied with that.
Interrogation postponed
The man who admitted some responsibility for the fatal train accident in Greece is expected to appear in court on Sunday. Saturday’s planned questioning of the 59-year-old stint was postponed 24 hours after new evidence emerged.
Although he made some concessions, many believe it is the fault of the system, which would never have placed such responsibility on a single individual to begin with.
– We are all human and everyone can make mistakes, says 25-year-old Alex Pappas, who is participating in a protest in central Athens.
– We are not machines, but we have machines that should have been used. What has happened is a serious crime. Greeks have been murdered. The government must say why. Someone has to pay, he tells them The Guardian.
A passenger train with around 350 people on board collided head-on with a goods train shortly before midnight on Tuesday 28 February. It is still unclear why the trains were on the same track for several kilometers.
The collision occurred shortly after the passenger train had left the city of Larissa, 13 miles south of Thessaloniki and about 38 miles north of the capital Athens.
Around two-thirds of the passengers are said to have been young people, many of them university students, who had visited a carnival over the long weekend.
The accident happened when the passenger train came out of a tunnel in the municipality of Tempi. The first four carriages of the passenger train derailed. The first two caught fire and were almost completely destroyed.
At least 57 people died and another 80 were injured. Several are still missing.
The country’s transport minister tendered his resignation shortly after the accident “out of respect” for those who died.