Protests and strikes after serious train accident

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According to the fire service, the rescue work at the scene of the accident in central Greece should be completed on Friday. Coroners tried to identify bodies using DNA testing, police said.

On Thursday evening, several thousand people took to the streets in Athens and Thessaloniki to protest the dilapidated state of Greece’s railways, which they say led to the accident. Autonomous threw fire bottles at the police. The situation calmed down on Friday evening.

The protests are also taking on political dimensions. In heated talk shows, conservative and left-wing politicians accuse each other that a system that stops a train when danger threatens and therefore also protects against human error does not work. Greece’s two main parties – the conservative Nea Dimokratia and the leftist Syriza – have alternately ruled the country for the past decade. The Railway Union complains that nothing has been put into practice in the field of rail safety.

The accident happened Wednesday night. A passenger train with about 350 people on board had ended up on a track where a freight train was approaching due to a wrong switch position. The railway employee responsible has already been charged with negligent homicide. His lawyer said his client had accepted the share of responsibility that was due him. (SDA)

Source: Blick