Tens of thousands of protesters clash with police over Greece train crash

Riot police in Athens clashed with protesters on Thursday during a demonstration to express outrage over last month's train tragedy that killed 57 people.

Television footage showed the clash broke out at the Greek capital's central Syntagma Square near parliament, as a demonstration of some 25,000 people passed by.

Police fired tear gas and stun grenades as demonstrators tried to surround them, hurling firebombs and rocks.

As the demonstrators retreated, they smashed traffic lights and shop windows and set garbage bins on fire, according to AFP news agency reporters.

Police said more than 40,000 protested nationwide, including around 8,500 in each of the country's next largest cities, Thessaloniki and Patras, where another brief clash occurred.

Many protesters urged the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign over what is the country's deadliest rail accident.

The February 28th tragedy exposed decades of safety failings in Greek railways and has put major pressure on the conservative government ahead of national elections.

"This crime will not be forgotten," demonstrators from the country's communist union PAME chanted as the crowd marched towards parliament in Athens.

Students shouted "murderers" and marchers threw flyers of Mitsotakis wearing a stationmaster's cap, captioned "it's everyone's fault but mine".

Thursday's protests were accompanied by a 24-hour strike — the biggest yet in days of industrial action that followed the disaster — this time called by Greece's leading private as well as public sector unions.

The walkout shut down the civil service, flights and ferries.

The rail disaster occurred shortly before midnight when a passenger train crashed head-on into a freight train in central Greece after both were mistakenly left running on the same track.

Most of the passengers were students returning from a holiday weekend.

The rail disaster occurred shortly before midnight when a passenger train crashed head-on into a freight train in central Greece after both were mistakenly left running on the same track.

A stationmaster and three other railway officials have been charged, but public anger has focused on long-running mismanagement of the network and the country has been rocked by a series of sometimes violent mass protests.

Last week, some 65,000 people took part in demonstrations around the country, including around 40,000 in Athens.

READ MORE: Greek unions launch 24-hour walkout over train tragedy