Massive protests in Greece to mark two years after deadly train collision

Massive protest rallies were staged in a number of cities in Greece on Friday, February 28, 2025, to mark two years of the tragic train collision which killed 57 people and left many more injured.

Two years have passed since the tragic day of the train collision on February 28, 2023 in the Tempe Valley near the village of Evangelismos, located in the prefecture of Larissa, northeast of its capital of the same name, and which is 129 kilometers from Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki. The result of this dramatic event, often called the “tragedy in Tempe” or “Tempe crime”, was 57 deaths and at least 85 injuries, 25 of them very serious. It is the deadliest railway accident to have occurred in Greece.

Specifically, a passenger train of the Hellenic Train company, a member of the Italian state-owned company Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane, heading from Athens to Thessaloniki and carrying more than 350 passengers, collided head-on at 23:21 at night with a commercial train of the same company heading from Thessaloniki to Thriasio Pedio, which is a plain in the prefecture of Attica, west of Athens.

The freight train was carrying a cargo of flammable chemicals, 3.5 tons. This is the conclusion reached after a commissioned investigation by the reliable experts of the University of Ghent in Belgium. The two trains were moving on the same line for 16 minutes before the fatal collision.

The collision derailed most of the passenger train’s carriages, and at the moment of the collision, an instantaneous fireball and fire were caused, completely burning the two front carriages of the passenger train. Most of the victims were Greeks, but among the dead were also six Albanians, one Romanian, one Syrian and one Bangladeshi national.

Guardian graphic

Following the accident, overnight protests and clashes with the police took place across Greece, while on March 2, 2023, railway employees of Hellenic Train and the Athens Metro went on strike to protest the dangers associated with the accident.

After two years, Greek society is outraged by the government’s handling of the train accident. According to a poll conducted by the polling company Alco, on behalf of the television station Alpha, 72% of the citizens surveyed believe that the government is trying to cover up the issue. And when they say cover-up, they mean everything that happened after the train collision in Tempe.

But what happened from then until today? From March 1 to March 6, 2023, the government removed the soil from the site of the tragedy to an appropriate depth, placed thick impregnated quarry gravel and covered it with concrete of sufficient thickness. At the same time, it is alleged to have lied about what the wagons of the commercial train were carrying. And finally, the government allegedly attempted to cover up its ministers and executives so that would not be revealed their responsibilities in the transformation of the place and the loss of valuable information, such as biological material from the victims, which would help solve the crime.

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The judicial investigation, moreover, for this blatant obstruction of the investigation of this tragic event began with a delay of one year and only after the social outcry caused by the unyielding struggle of the relatives of the victims. And there is going to be a trial for the accident and the alteration of the site, which is characteristically delayed.

The Hellenic Train company, for its part, in its successive announcements about the train accident, claims that the commercial train was not carrying flammable materials. In its report, which it has also delivered to the authorities, it characterizes the explosion and fire as an unfortunate coincidence!

Guardian graphic

Thus, on Friday, February 28, 2025, in 365 cities in Greece and other countries, moving rallies were held for the black anniversary of the two-year of the tragic Tempe accident. In Athens, the protest rally was held in the central square of the city, Syntagma Square, in front of the Parliament, where a huge crowd filled it to capacity, as well as all the surrounding streets.

Citizens voiced their demand for the full clarification of the circumstances under which 57 people lost their lives on the fateful night of February 28, 2023, and for justice to be served.

After the scheduled speeches at the rally ended in Athens, incidents occurred. Hooded men who aimed to break up the peaceful gathering threw Molotov cocktails and stones, resulting in at least five people being injured.

By Isidoros Karderinis

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