Government says rail projects beset by ‘chronic public sector ills’, as death toll from crash rises to 57
Thousands of Greeks have taken to the streets for a second day of protests as anger mounts over the loss of life inBraving torrential rain and thunder, demonstrators marched from the office headquarters of Hellenic Train in Athens to the Greek parliament, chanting “this crime will not be forgotten”.
He said: “Everyone knows that if the Greek state had wanted, this accident could have been prevented. My own son worked on upgrading the signalling system – nine years ago. Ever since it’s been stalled because companies are only ever interested in profits.”The protests came hours after the centre-right government of the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, conceded that rail projects nationwide had been beset by “chronic public sector ills”.
On Thursday, railway and metro workers went on strike. In a statement, unions said the stoppage – which is to be extended until Saturday – had been called to protest against the “disrespect that [successive] governments have shown towards the Greek railroads which led to the tragic result in Tempe”. Unions say cost cutting, staff shortages, antiquated equipment and impoverished infrastructure have plagued the network for years.
They had boarded the Thessaloniki-bound night train in the Greek capital after a three-day holiday weekend. “It was a student train, full of kids … in their 20s,” Costas Bargiotas, a senior orthopaedic doctor at Larissa general hospital, told Skai TV. “It was truly shocking … the carriages crumpled like paper.”
The grim process of identifying the victims has been made more complicated, media reports said, because forensic scientists, for the most part, have only had incinerated body parts to work with. Relatives desperately seeking loved ones have had to provide DNA samples so that corpses can be matched and handed over to families. The health ministry said relatives had been prevented from seeing the bodies “for psychological reasons”.
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