Thousands of protesters call for investment in Greece transport system

BBC reported that tens of thousands of people have taken part in protests and strikes in Greece, in a show of anger over last week’s train crash which killed 57 people.

Riot police used tear gas on a group of demonstrators in Athens – some of whom threw petrol bombs. Police also intervened in protests in the city of Thessaloniki. The government has been accused of mismanagement after the head on collision between a passenger train and a freight train on 28 February.

“I am here to pay tribute to the dead but also to express my anger and my frustration,” one protester in Athens told a news agency on Wednesday. “This government must go.” “You feel angry because the government did nothing for all of those kids,” another said, referring to the fact that many of the 350 people onboard the train were students.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is facing re-election this year, has come under mounting pressure to resign over the country’s deadliest rail crash on record. He and his government have been criticised for trying to shift the blame for the crash onto the station master who has been charged with manslaughter.