Nearly two years ago, thousands of protesters rallied outside Greece's parliament to demand justice for the victims of the country's worst rail disaster.
Sunday's demonstrations, one of the largest to be held in the capital in recent years, came days after local media released recordings suggesting some of the 57 victims may have survived but died in an attack of unknown origin in the fire. More than an hour after the crash.
Protests were also held in dozens of cities in Greece and abroad, with participants rallying under the slogan "I have no oxygen", echoing one woman's last words in a call for emergency services.
Attendees in Athens held banners reading "We will not forget", while chants of "Murderer, murderer" echoed in the Piazza del Mar.
A forensic investigation remains underway into the deaths of a freight train and a passenger train that carried students near Tempe just before midnight on February 28, 2023.
The crash, on a line linking Athens to Greece's second-largest city Thessaloniki, sparked angry protests across the country and was seen as the result of widespread neglect of the railway after a decade of financial crisis.
Two years later, the causes of death for many of the victims have yet to be determined as their families accuse authorities of trying to cover up evidence.
"Thank you very much for the support of all Greeks," said Maria Karystianou, a representative of the Tempe Association of Victims' Families, who lost her 20-year-old daughter in the disaster.
"Our voices say one thing: no crime will ever be punished again," she said. "Let the crime in Tempe be the beginning and justice should be done because that's what society as a whole wants."
The cause of the fire is unclear
Ilias Papangelis, who lost his 18-year-old daughter in the crash, told the crowd in Athens: "Two years after the tragedy, no one has been punished, no one is in jail."
According to reports from experts hired by the family, the crash resulted in a massive fireball. It's unclear what caused it.
A growing number of experts have ruled out hypotheses that cables or oil used in passenger cars caused the blaze, raising questions about the freight train's cargo.
The center-right government, which was re-elected after the crash, denies the accusations.
Relatives were further angered last week by a proposal by its former parliament speaker, Constant Tassoulas, who said parliament failed to investigate any political responsibility under his watch.
"We don't know what caused the explosion, what the (freight) train was carrying," said Nikos Plakias, who lost two daughters and a niece.
He added: "We will always have doubts...if we need to go to the European Court of Justice, we will."
After mostly peaceful demonstrations in Athens, brief clashes broke out between riot police and many protesters, with officers firing tear gas to disperse some from the crowd.
