Thousands of students, joined by teachers and parents’ associations, march across Greece on Friday demanding justice for the Tempi train disaster.
In Athens, the rally was held at the Propylaea, with the banner of the Athens Student Coordinating Committee declaring “A child saying: I don’t have oxygen – This is what makes the state a murderer! No cover-up.”
Similar demonstrations took place in cities across Greece, with thousands of students, parents, and teachers participating. Nearly two years after the tragic head-on collision of two trains that claimed 57 lives, new revelations and accusations have brought the issue back to the forefront and led to growing allegations of a government coverup.
Students take part in a demonstration to demand justice for the 2023 Tempe fatal train accident, in Athens , Greece on February 7, 2025.
At the end of January, an expert report confirmed previous suspicions that the freight train had been carrying flammable liquids—claims repeatedly denied by both the train company and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis– and that these liquids caused a fire that led to the deaths of 30 people. The release of victims’ desperate phone calls, where they can be heard screaming “I don’t have oxygen” as they perished in the flames further fueled public outrage.
In its call for Friday’s rally, The Federation of Secondary Education Officials stated: “Two years after the crime in Tempi, we demand justice! To punish all the culprits. That the revelation be taken to the end, that the causes of the explosion and those responsible for the unacceptable alteration of the crime scene be investigated before the necessary evidence is collected.”
They also declared a three-hour work stoppage to allow teachers to attend demonstrations, “Against the politics of profit, which considers safety a cost, which sacrifices human lives! Against the policy that prepares the ‘new Tempis’ everywhere: in hospitals, public transport, in schools where ceilings, doors and windows are falling down or are becoming gifts to the shipowners.”
Student group at Tempi protest. Banners read “no cover-up” and “it is a crime”.
Shortly before the rally began, police apprehended 27 students on Akadimias Street. When questioned by bystanders, officers described the apprehensions as “preventive.” Simultaneously, police conducted bag searches on young people heading towards the Propylaea to join the march.
Earlier in the day, students displayed banners at the Rectorate of the National University of Athens, addressing both the train tragedy and the controversial establishment of Onassis Public Schools. One banner read: “I have no oxygen. We want justice, accountability for the crime. Down with the government of cover-ups and murderers.”
Students have outlined gathering points for Tempi protests nationwide, including:
- Athens, 12:00, Propylaea
- Thessaloniki, 12:00, Courts Square (Venizelos statue)
- Larissa, 12:00, Central Square
- Patras, 12:00, Georgiou Square
- Chania, 10:30, Market
- Heraklion, 11:00, Freedom Square
- Ioannina, 12:00, Epirus Region
- Volos, 11:00, Tholos
The full list includes over 30 locations across the country.
The Athens Student Coordinating Committee issued a statement: “No matter how many lies the state – governments – companies tell to cover up their huge responsibilities, the truth is one: Their profits deprived the children in Tempi of oxygen. And they are depriving us of oxygen every day in our lives and in our dreams, in our country, in the EU and around the world. We continue! As long as you deprive us of oxygen, our struggle will give breath to our lives. As long as you lie, we will fight for truth and justice. The crime in Tempe will not be covered up. Either you are on the side of profits or the side of life.”
Students in #Athens and across #Greece once again took to the streets to demand justice for the victims of the deadly #Tempi train crash.#Δεν_Εχουμε_Οξυγονο #Τεμπη pic.twitter.com/OSZfBsDL55
— Vedat Yeler (@vedatyeler_) February 7, 2025
In Thessaloniki, the protest march concluded with the central slogan: “We are the voice of all the dead, this crime will not be covered up.”
“Our loved ones no longer have a voice, and we are their voice. United, we must fight for our lives. We do not forgive those responsible for the crime and the cover-up. ‘I have no oxygen’ were the cries of our fellow students in Tempi—this is what we feel. We are suffocating, and only with our struggle will the truth shine,” declared student representatives.
Students take part in a demonstration to demand justice for the 2023 Tempe fatal train accident, in Thessaloniki, Greece on February 7, 2025.
“We are here to shout ‘no’ to the cover-up and demand that justice be served,” said representatives of the University of Thessaly student associations. “We join our voices to declare that the crime in Tempi will not be forgotten.”
In Ioannina, hundreds of students and teachers gathered at noon in the city’s central square, holding banners and chanting: “I don’t have oxygen.”
Chania saw similar scenes, where students and teachers marched, demanding accountability.
