The protest turned violent when a group of hooded youths hurled petrol bombs at police and tried to storm the barricades in front of parliament. (Reuters: Louiza Vradi)
In short:
One of the biggest protests in Greece in years has turned violent as hundreds of thousands of people gather on the second anniversary of the country's deadliest-ever train crash.
57 people were killed in 2023 when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train.
What's next?
Two years later, the safety gaps that caused the crash have not been filled, a recent inquiry found.
Protesters hurled petrol bombs and set fire to rubbish bins in Athens as hundreds of thousands of Greeks went on strike and took to the streets in nationwide demonstrations on the second anniversary of the country's deadliest train crash.
Fifty-seven people were killed when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train on February 28 in 2023 near the Tempi gorge in central Greece.
The accident has become a painful emblem of the perceived neglect of the country's infrastructure in the decades before the crash and the two years since.
Anger grows over Greek rail disaster
Photo shows People protest in the streets, holding banners.
In one of the biggest protests in Greece in years, public services and many private businesses were brought to a halt and people poured into the streets of cities and towns chanting "murderers" against what they say is the state's role in the disaster.
The government denies wrongdoing.
In the capital Athens, the protest turned violent when a group of hooded youths hurled petrol bombs at police and tried to storm the barricades in front of parliament.
Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon and cat-and-mouse clashes then spread into the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Clashes also broke out in Greece's second city, Thessaloniki, where a giant crowd choked the centre and people released black balloons into the sky in memory of the dead.
More than 80 people were detained and five were injured in Athens alone, authorities said.
Political threat
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right government, which won re-election after the crash in 2023, has faced repeated criticism by relatives of the victims for failing to initiate a parliamentary inquiry into political responsibility.
Police hold shields during clashes near the Greek parliament. (Reuters: Florion Goga)
The government says it is up to the judiciary to investigate the accident.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Mitsotakis said his government would work to modernise the railway network and make it safer.
"That night, we saw the ugliest face of the country in the national mirror," he wrote of the night of the crash.
"Fatal human errors met with chronic state inadequacies."
The safety gaps that caused the crash have not been filled two years on, a state inquiry found on Thursday.
A separate judicial investigation remains unfinished and no one has been convicted in the accident.
Opposition parties have accused the government of covering up evidence and urged it to step down.
Next week, parliament is expected to debate whether to set up a committee to investigate possible political responsibility in the disaster.
A drone view shows people gathering in front of the Greek parliament in Athens. (Reuters via Eurokinissi)
Protesters said they have waited too long.
Anastasia Plakia, who lost two sisters and a cousin in the crash, posted a photo on Facebook of the four of them smiling together in a restaurant: "730 days without you; 730 days of sadness, pain and rage," the post said.
General strike
All international and domestic flights were grounded as air traffic controllers joined seafarers, train drivers, doctors, lawyers and teachers in a 24-hour general strike to pay tribute to the victims of the crash.
Businesses were shut and theatres cancelled performances.
In a survey carried out this week by Pulse pollsters, 82 per cent of Greeks asked said the train disaster was "one of the most" or "the most" important issue in the country and 66 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the investigations into the accident.
"Every day, the monster of corrupt power appears before us," Maria Karystianou, whose daughter died in the crash and who heads an association of victims' families, told the crowd in Athens.
Students shouted "Text me when you get there," — the final message many of the victims' relatives sent them.
A cardboard sign read: "Greece kills its children."
"We're here because we're parents… tomorrow it might be our children," said Litsa, a 45-year-old nurse.
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