Demonstrators flooded past me as deafening police blast bombs exploded around us, to the left and right tear gas canisters landed on the road, spinning and belching out gas.
Two water cannons began spraying into the crowds who were trying to hold the line.
Phalanxes of riot police, truncheons in hand, broke into a sprint from three sides, trying to catch up with the protesters as they disappeared into alleyways.
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Riot police attacked with Molotov cocktails thrown by demonstrators. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
It was perhaps inevitable the police would lose patience with the protesters who had gathered in front of the country’s parliament in central Athens, throwing rocks, broken pieces of pavement and marble steps, sticks, and a lot of oranges picked from the trees that line the entrance to the building.
In Greece demonstrations often go this way, even as we prepared to cover the event, we concluded some trouble would be inevitable, and we weren’t wrong.
Water cannons and petrol bombs used in Athens
Sometimes in gas masks, sometimes in helmets, we witnessed the police take back control of Syntagma Square – the centre of a protest commemorating the second anniversary of Greece’s worst train crash.
A total of 57 people died, and many more were injured when two trains collided on the same line of track near the Tempi gorge in central Greece on 28 February 2023.
Nobody has been held responsible, no proper investigations have been concluded, and an inquiry has found that no safety improvements have been implemented either.
On social media, the victims’ families called for a memorial, but the whole issue has escalated into a political crisis for the government, and the anniversary was marked with a general strike and demonstrations in dozens of cities, with hundreds of thousands taking to the street.
From early morning, tens of thousands had made their way to the official start point outside parliament in Athens. They marched together, chanting “murderers, murderers”.
Police use water cannons against protesters. Pic: AP
Riots broke out in Athens (above) and Thessaloniki. Pic: AP
Demonstrators protest to mark the second anniversary of the country’s worst railway disaster: REUTERS/Murad Sezer
I spoke to two friends who had come to pay their respects to the victims.
“We are only here for justice,” a woman in the heaving crowd told me. “We don’t trust the government about what happened.”
She added: “I don’t come here in anger, I come here in sorrow, and that is important.”
As the official rally began to disperse, the violence started as demonstrators set makeshift barricades of rubbish bins on fire and threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at police lines, attempting to hold some of Athens’ famous squares.
Over 5,000 riot police have been deployed, some stationary, others patrolling on motorbikes as protesters split into small groups.
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They popped up across the centre of the city in a well-rehearsed game of cat and mouse with the security services.
In the early evening, a group of a few hundred protesters sat in front of the parliament building, watched by lines of riot police. Running battles continued into the night in other parts of the city.
It’s unclear what the violence has achieved, if anything, but public opinion here is hugely against the government on this issue.
Many believe there has been a cover-up and there are growing calls for a parliamentary inquiry.
The sense one gets is that the government needs to understand that this issue is not going away.
