Protests are taking place today throughout Greece over the Tempe train crash in 2023, which killed 57 people and injured dozens, the online edition of the newspaper "Kathimerini" reported. They cover at least 97 cities in Greece, including Athens, where they began at 12:00 local and Bulgarian time, and Thessaloniki.
The protest also includes 13 cities around the world, the publication also reported, publishing a specially prepared map in which, among other cities, Madrid, London, Istanbul, Paris, Amsterdam are marked.
The train crash occurred shortly before midnight on February 28, 2023. near Larissa, central Greece, in a head-on collision between two trains, a passenger train and a freight train. Most of the victims were young people - students returning to Thessaloniki universities.
The protests come after audio evidence was leaked earlier this week, which indicated that about 30 of the 57 victims of the crash were still alive after the trains collided, the Greek publication reported. The audio recordings indicate that these passengers died later, probably as a result of suffocation or burns, as the collision caused a large explosion and fire.
The audio recordings were made after the collision was reported to the emergency number 112 and came from the phones of some of the students who were returning by train after a long holiday break. In them, students can be heard shouting for help and trying to catch their breath.
The protests are being held under the slogan "I have no air". For security reasons, restrictions have been introduced in the center of the Greek capital, and lines 2 and 3 of the metro have not been operating since 10:00 a.m.
In Thessaloniki, one metro station ("New Railway Station") has been temporarily closed, but the metro continues to run without interruption on line 1.