CNN
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Anger in Greece over poor railway security grew on Thursday because the dying toll from one of many nation’s worst prepare crashes in recent times reached 57.
Demonstrators poured onto the streets after the head-on collision between a passenger prepare carrying greater than 350 individuals and a freight prepare on Tuesday night in Tempi, close to the town of Larissa.
Protesters clashed with police within the capital Athens, the nation’s transport minister resigned within the wake of the tragedy and a rail employees’ union is happening strike, accusing the federal government of “disrespect” within the sector.
One other 48 individuals stay in hospital on account of the crash, which left toppled carriages and scorched particles in its wake. Six of the injured being handled are in vital situation because of head wounds and critical burns, public broadcaster ERT reported Thursday.
After a prepare station supervisor in Larissa was arrested in connection to the collision, Greek authorities on Thursday additionally launched hanging dispatch audio recordings that present one of many prepare drivers receiving directions to disregard a purple mild.
“Proceed via purple visitors mild exit till visitors mild entry of Neon Poron,” the station grasp is heard saying.
“Vasilis, am I good to go?” the prepare driver responds, to which the prepare grasp says “Go, go.”
In a second dialog, the station grasp might be heard ordering an worker to maintain one of many trains on the identical observe.
“Shall I flip it now?” the worker asks.
“No, no, as a result of 1564 is on this route,” the station grasp says.
The station grasp has been charged with mass deaths via negligence and inflicting grievous bodily hurt via negligence. Upon arrest he blamed the collision on a technical fault, although later admitted to “making a mistake.”
Protesters gathered outdoors the central Athens headquarters of Greek rail firm Hellenic Prepare once more on Thursday night in an indication organized by scholar and employee unions.
Police already had a presence outdoors the Hellenic Prepare headquarters earlier than the demonstrators arrived. The protest was peaceable, following unrest on Wednesday wherein demonstrators clashed with police.
A lot of the passengers concerned within the accident had been younger, a neighborhood hospital informed ERT. The accident got here quickly after a vacation weekend.
Search and rescue operations will proceed on Thursday and Friday on the website of the crash, based on the Fireplace Service.
In the meantime, kin of these lacking are nonetheless awaiting information concerning their family members because the identification course of continues at Larissa Basic Hospital.
Talking earlier to Greek media, Dimitris Bournazis, who’s attempting to get information about his father and brother, stated nobody has given him any info. Bournazis stated he was attempting to contact the corporate to seek out out the place on the prepare his kin had been sitting on the time of the crash. He stated he known as the workplaces of Hellenic Prepare thrice however nobody has known as him again.
“The prime minister and the well being minister got here right here yesterday. Why? To do what? To elucidate what? The place are they at the moment?” Bournazis informed Greek broadcaster SKAI, including that “nobody has given us any info, nobody is aware of how many individuals actually had been inside.”
“We can’t solely blame one individual for this due to a mistake. The place is everybody else now? All of them await the election to talk,” he stated.
Talking to ERT, passenger Andreas Alikaniotis, who was within the second carriage through the collision, described the moments following the crash.
“What we did was to interrupt the glass, which was already cracked, and to throw the baggage outdoors the carriage, so we will land someplace smooth,” he informed ERT, describing how he helped round 10 individuals escape.
“We jumped 3 to 4 meters,” he added, “first the extra significantly injured after which us with lighter accidents”
Alikaniotis added that he remembers pulling up two or three ladies and serving to them get to the window to leap. “There was panic,” he added.
Greece has a weak report of railway passenger security in contrast with different nations in Europe, recording the very best railway fatality charge per million prepare kilometers from 2018 to 2020 amongst 28 nations on the continent, based on a 2022 report from the European Union Company for Railways.
In a unprecedented assembly, the Greek federation of rail employees determined unanimously to launch the 24-hour strike on Thursday to focus on poor working circumstances and continual understaffing.
It accused the federal authorities of “disrespect” in the direction of railways for inflicting the crash, saying “extra everlasting employees, higher coaching and primarily the implementation of contemporary safety programs, are completely thrown within the bin.”
Individually, one other 24-hour strike was introduced by Greek metro employees, who stated in an announcement: “There aren’t any phrases to explain such tragedy.”
Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis stated the railway system the federal government inherited was “lower than twenty first century requirements” as he stepped down from his position Wednesday.
In a televised handle after visiting the crash website, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated the collision was “primarily” due “to tragic human error.”
He stated the transport minister’s choice to resign was honorable, and added that the heads of Hellenic Railways Group and its subsidiary ERGOSE have additionally submitted their resignations.
Condolences have poured in from the world over, whereas a three-day interval of mourning is underneath manner in Greece.
Britain’s King Charles stated in an announcement that he and his spouse Camilla, Queen Consort, have been “most shocked and profoundly saddened by the information of the dreadful accident.”
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “My ideas exit to the households of the victims of the horrible accident that befell final night time close to Larissa. France stands alongside the Greeks.”
