Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek Prime Minister, has asked forgiveness from the families of the 57 people who died in this week's train accident.

M. Mitsotakis stated in a Facebook message that "in the Greece of 2023...two trains going in opposite directions cannot run on one line, and nobody notices".

Protests continued for days.

On Sunday, police clashed with demonstrators in Athens.

According to police, 12,000 protesters were present.

According to the AFP news agency, seven officers were injured and five were arrested.

Demonstrators set fire to garbage bins and threw petrol bombs. The police responded with tear gas and stun grenades. They cleared the central Syntagma Square within minutes.

In memory of the deceased, hundreds of black balloons were reportedly thrown into the air by protesters. Some also held signs that read "Down with murderers governments".

A passenger train and freight train traveling in opposite directions collided on the same track on the night of February 28th.

The passenger train's first four carriages were derailment, while the first two caught fire and were nearly completely destroyed.

Human error has been widely blamed for the train crash.

Larissa's station master, 59, was arrested and charged with manslaughter through negligence.

Stefanos Pantzartzidis, his lawyer, said that the station master had admitted to a part of the accident's responsibility. If convicted, he could spend between 10 and 20 years in prison.

Many in Greece view the crash as an accident waiting to happen. The railway workers' union blames successive governments for their "disrespect" toward the Greek railways, leading to this "tragic outcome".

According to a minister in the government, the BBC was told by the BBC that funding problems were caused by strict international bailout terms that were imposed following the 2010 debt crisis.

Union members were joined by residents of Athens and Thessaloniki in taking to the streets throughout the past week, shocked by the scale of the disaster. The protests were also attended by many students - several of the passengers on board one of the trains were students in their 20s returning to Thessaloniki after a long weekend celebrating Greek Orthodox Lent.

"The rail network looked problematic, with worn down, badly paid staff," Nikos Savva, a medical student from Cyprus, told AFP news agency.

Train drivers in Greece have said there have been long-running problems with the electronic systems that are supposed to warn them of danger ahead.

The transport minister, Kostas Karamanlis, also resigned as a "sign of respect" for the people who had died. Mr. Karamanlis, was taking responsibility for the government's failure to modernize the country's railways in the three-and-a-half years it had been in power.

Immediately after the accident, the Greek government declared three days of national mourning and said the cost of the victims' funerals would be paid for from the public purse.

BBC Europe correspondent Nick Beake says the crash seems to be becoming a defining political issue for Greece as it prepares to face a general election in the spring.

Media reports have given 9 April as a possible date, but analysts say that date may now be pushed back.

May their souls rest in peace

So bad

Maintenance is always necessary in anything... apologies to the briefed one who have lost their loved ones.

So bad