Greece Buries its Dead from Rail Disaster

Greece is burying its dead from the rail disaster at Tempi, near Larissa, on Tuesday.

Families and friends, dressed in black, clung to each other, in tears, as the coffin of 23-year-old Ifigenia Mitska was lifted up the stairs of a church at Giannitsa on Saturday.

Mitska is among the 57 people, mostly young, who perished in the head-on crash between a passenger train and a freight train in central Greece.

The family’s lawyer said that Ifigenia was sitting in the third carriage at the window next to her fiancé who survived with burns. The fire that erupted immediately following the crash did not reach the carriage, but high temperatures had developed.

He visited the scene and posted a photo of where Ifigenia and her fiancé were seated.

“As soon as the collision happened her fiancé looked for Ifigenia, and he found her, together with a child. He carried both to a safer place in the wagon and found that she had blood on her head, and from what he remembers she had a pulse.

Rescuers took the child away but Ifigenia went missing. Rescuers discovered her body the next morning,” lawyer Stelios Sourlas said.

“Sadness and anger are overflowing. We have confidence in Greek Justice, we are sure that the responsibilities will be assigned where they belong. The families of the victims are waiting for a sincere apology which they have not heard yet,” he added.

57 people killed in rail disaster in Greece

The first known funeral after the accident was for a 34-year-old mother in the northern town of Katerini on Friday.

There were more than 350 people on board the passenger train, many of them university students going back to the northern town of Thessaloniki from the capital Athens after a long holiday weekend.

Police said 54 bodies out of 56 people reported missing by relatives had so far been identified – almost all from DNA tests as the crash was so violent. A 57th body has not been identified as no one has appeared so far to give a DNA sample.

Bereaved families have vowed to seek justice.

“It is a very difficult situation,” a relative told Greece’s Skai radio. “We will see how we will move (legally), we won’t let anything go, the families’ demand is that they don’t get away with it.”

Meanwhile, thousands of students protested on Friday throughout Greece, demanding justice for the victims of the train disaster at Tempi.

“Text me when you arrive”, is one of the main slogans written on banners that can be seen in every part of the country – a reference to a text message found on one of the victims’ phones.

From Athens and Larissa to Volos and Patras, young people have taken to the streets offering their own unanswered “whys” about the tragedy.

Related: Greek Tragedy: Twin Sisters and Cousin Die in Train Disaster