A protest over the Greek government’s response to the nation’s largest-ever train crash turned violent on Friday as scores of youths hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at police. The fiery scenes took place in front of Greece's parliament building in Athens during mass protests to mark the second anniversary of a devastating train crash in northern Greece that left 57 people dead.
Following hours of peaceful rallies in the Greek capital, youths with hammers smashed paving stones, throwing the rubble and makeshift firebombs at police who responded with tear gas. Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of cities across Greece on Friday in a mass mobilization, led by relatives of the victims’ families.
Clashes also broke out in Greece's second city, Thessaloniki, where a giant crowd choked the centre and people released black balloons into the sky in memory of the dead. More than 80 people were detained and five were injured in Athens alone, authorities said.
The protests - among the largest since the country's debt crisis more than a decade ago - have been fueled by public resentment against the conservative government's perceived inaction. Critics say that politicians should be held accountable for failures that led up to the crash, but so far only rail officials have been charged with any crimes.
Rail unions say the network has been poorly maintained despite rail service upgrades to provide faster trains in recent years. The 2023 train disaster in Tempe saw a passenger train collide head-on with an oncoming freight train. It was Greece's worst railway accident and left dozens injured and exposed deficiencies in the country's transportation infrastructure.
The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge separating the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. The train was traveling along Greece's busiest route, from the capital Athens to the country's second-largest city, Thessaloniki.
