Greeks march as anger builds over train disaster

ATHENS — The station master involved in Greece's worst-ever train accident was due to appear in court on Saturday after mass protests broke out over the crash, in which at least 57 people died.

Thousands of protesters have demonstrated across the country since a passenger train and a freight train collided head-on on Tuesday, with public anger mounting over alleged government mismanagement of the rail network.

The 59-year-old station master at Larissa was reported to have admitted responsibility for the accident, preceded by the two trains running along the same track for several kilometers.

The passenger train was carrying many students returning from a holiday weekend, and at least nine young people studying at Aristotle University in the city of Thessaloniki were among the dead, while another 26 others were injured.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is seeking reelection in the coming months, has blamed the disaster on "tragic human error".

However, protests in which the government was accused of mismanagement continued on Friday in the capital Athens and several other big cities, with more planned for the weekend.

The station master was due to face charges of negligent homicide and faces life imprisonment if found guilty, but his lawyer, Stefanos Pantzartzidis, has argued that other factors were at play.

The country's public broadcaster ERT reported that the station master had been appointed to the post only 40 days earlier and after three months' training.

Thousands gathered outside the Athens headquarters of Hellenic Train, which took over network operations in 2017, to protest at what they said were decades of failure to improve rail network safety, despite close calls in past years.

Agencies Via Xinhua