Protests have intensified in Greece days after th🍎e country's deadlies🐭t rail disaster, as thousands of students took to the streets in several cities and some protesters clashed with police in Athens
At least 57 people, including several university students, died when a passenger train slammed into a fre🔥ight carrier just before midnight Tuesday. The government has🏅 blamed human error and a railway official faces manslaughter charges.
Friday night's violence was not extensive and t🦂he protests were otherwise peac♛eful. Clashes also occurred in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki.
In Athens, riot police outside parliament fired tear gas and flash grenades to disꦦperse a small number of protesters who hurled petrol bombs at them, set fire to garbage bins, and challenged police cordons. No arrests or injuries were reported.
The protests called by left-wing and student groups were fuelled by anger at the perceived lack of safety measures in Greece's rail network. The largest on Friday was in the central Greek city of 🦋Larissa, not far from the crash site, where several thousand people marched peacefully. Similar protests were held on Wednesday and Thursday.
First funeral in Northern Greece
The accident at🙈 Tempe, 380 kilometres (235 miles) no🐬rth of Athens, shocked the nation and highlighted safety shortcomings in the small but dated rail network.
As recovery teams spent a third day scouring t𒈔he wreckage on Friday and families began receiving the𝓰 remains of their loved ones, the funeral for the first of the victims was held in northern Greece.
Athina Katsara, a 34-ye🦂ar-old mother of an infant boy, was buried in her home town of Katerini. Her injured husband was in hospital and unable to attend.
Harrowing identification process
The force of the head-on collision and resulti๊ng fire complicated the task of determining th𓂃e death toll. Officials worked round the clock to match parts of dismembered and burned bodies with tissue samples to establish the number.
The bodies were returned to families in closed caskets following identification through next-of-kin DNA s🦩amples -- a process followed for all the remai🌸ns.
Relatives of passengers still listed as unaccounted-for waited outside a Larissa hospital for♍ test results. Among them was Mirella Ruci, whose 22-year-old son, Denis, remained missing.
&ꦓquot;My son is not on any official list so far and I have no information. I am pleading with anyone who may have seen him, in rail car 5, seat 22, to contact me if they may have seen him," Ruci, who struggled tꦆo stop her voice from cracking, told reporters.
Flags at half staff
Flags at the ancient Acropolis, parliament and other public buildings around Greece remained at half-staff on the third day of national mourning. National rail services were hal♕ted by a strike for a second day, with more strikes planned over the weekend.
Police early on Friday searched a rail coordination office in Larissa, removing evidence as part of an ongoing investigat🐻ion. The facility's 59-year-old station manager was arrested and charged with multiple coun𒊎ts of negligent manslaughter.
Stelios Sourlas, a lawyer representing a 23-year-old victim oꦆf the collision, said responsibility for the deaths went beyond the stati꧅on manager.
"The station manager may have the principle responsibility ... but the responsibility is also broader: There are the rail operators and public officials whose job it was to ensure that saღfety measures and procedures were properly in place✤," Sourlas said.
Rail unions say the network was poorly maintaine🀅d despite upgrades to provide fast𝔍er trains in recent years.
Election plans delayed?
Greece's centre-right government had been widely expected on Friday to call national elections for early April, but the announcement and like🙈ly date ꦓwas likely to be delayed.
The passenger train involved in the crash was trav🐬elling along Greece's busiest route, from Athens to Thessaloniki. The freight 🌌train was heading in the opposite direction, on the same track.
Two of the victims were identified on Friday as Cypriot st��udents Anastasia Adamidou and Kyprianos Papaioannou. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said the state would cover the cost of their repatriati💙on and funerals.
Nei🎐ghbouring Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that flags on public buildings will be lowered to half-staff on Sunday, as a mark of respect for the victims in Greece.
