Protests in Greece on rail crash anniversary as frustration at system failures boils over

Riot police clash with protesters in Athens marking the second anniversary of Greece's worst rail disaster.

Riot police fired volleys of tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons at protesters hurling gasoline bombs and smashed-up paving stones in Athens on Friday (February 28, 2025). The massive demonstration marked the second anniversary of Greece's worst rail disaster that has become a symbol of institutional failure.

Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life took to the streets in cities across the country as part of a general strike called to demand justice for the 57 people killed on February 28, 2023, when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train.

Among the largest demonstrations since Greece’s debt crisis a decade ago, Friday’s protests were fueled by public resentment against the conservative government’s perceived lack of accountability in the wake of the disaster, and the slow pace of the investigation.

Violence also broke out on the fringes of a protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where dozens of hooded protesters broke away from the main rally to clash with riot police.

In Athens, repeated rounds of clashes near Parliament left at least 20 people requiring medical attention, authorities said. Police said 120 people were detained, with 27 of them arrested, while another 35 people were detained in Thessaloniki. Confrontations spilled over into nearby streets, with groups of hooded protesters entering an archaeological site near the ancient Roman monument of Hadrian's Arch and pelting riot police with rocks.

Unions called a general strike in support of the mass mobilization led by the victims' relatives. Critics say that politicians should be held accountable for failures that led up to the collision, but so far only rail officials have been charged with any crimes.

The disaster in Tempe — the worst railway accident in Greece's history — left dozens injured and exposed deficiencies in transportation infrastructure.