Latest news with #HARSIA
Al Jazeera
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Greek police probe hardline group claims on bombing attacks
Greek police say they are investigating claims by an unknown hardline group that it was responsible for a couple of bomb blasts that rocked Athens over the past year. A police spokeswoman told Greek media on Monday that the authorities were examining a statement issued by Revolutionary Class Struggle that it was behind an explosion on Friday near the offices of railway operator Hellenic Train last week, as well as an attack at the Ministry of Labour last year. The group posted a statement on the website on Sunday, which dedicated both the attacks to 'the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance'. 'The claim is being examined with great attention by the relevant officers so that they can gather information,' police spokeswoman Constantina Dimoglidou told Action 24 TV. She said it was too early to draw conclusions about the group's identity but police were investigating possible links with other cases in the past. The Revolutionary Class Struggle statement blamed Hellenic Train, a unit of Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato, for a rail accident in 2023 near the Greek village of Tempi. The crash, which killed 57 people, has led to numerous protests over deficiencies in the railway system and claims of government corruption. The group's statement branded them demonstrations against 'state capitalist crime', and sought to link them to Palestine and the war in Gaza 'since they took place within a country with an active role in the American-Zionist genocidal war'. The statement also said the group was behind a 2024 attack on the Labour Ministry. Neither attack resulted in any injuries as warnings were sent in advance. Hellenic Train, the operator of passenger and cargo train services, was once a subsidiary of state-owned Hellenic Railways. In February, Greece's Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority (HARSIA) said the 2023 accident was due to chronic safety gaps and that they still needed to be addressed to prevent a repeat. Christos Papadimitriou, the head of HARSIA, resigned on Wednesday, a move expected to further stall efforts to shed light on the country's worst rail disaster. A judicial investigation is expected to conclude this year.
Al Arabiya
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Lead investigator of 2023 deadly Greek train crash resigns
The supervisor of Greece's national investigation into a 2023 train crash resigned on Wednesday, a move expected to further complicate efforts to shed light on the country's worst rail disaster that killed 57 people. According to opinion polls, most Greeks view the crash as emblematic of the neglect of the country's railways in recent decades and also of a persistent failure by the state to address safety concerns. The crash has prompted angry protests, fueled further by a lack of trust in institutions. Christos Papadimitriou, the head of the railway division at Greece's Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority (HARSIA), stepped down days after a top court prosecutor ordered a probe into HARSIA's findings. In February, HARSIA said the safety gaps, which failed to prevent the head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train on February 28, 2023, had not yet been fixed. It also found that a fireball that followed the collision could not have been caused by train equipment, generating doubts about the freight train's cargo as well as political wrangling. HARSIA decided this week to remove the section which refers to the causes of the fireball, after at least one of the foreign universities cited in its report said it had neither reviewed nor authorized the content. Greece's Supreme Court prosecutor ordered a probe into the developments to determine if there was an attempt to influence a judicial investigation which has been underway since 2023. HARSIA, an independent authority, was only set up in late 2023. It launched its probe in March 2024, more than a year after the crash, which meant it had to rely on others for much of its information. 'I tried to serve the public interest... in a difficult situation,' said Papadimitriou in his resignation letter, standing by HARSIA's main findings.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lead investigator of 2023 deadly Greek train crash resigns
ATHENS (Reuters) - The supervisor of Greece's national investigation into a 2023 train crash resigned on Wednesday, a move expected to further complicate efforts to shed light on the country's worst rail disaster that killed 57 people. According to opinion polls, most Greeks view the crash as emblematic of the neglect of the country's railways in recent decades and also of a persistent failure by the state to address safety concerns. The crash has prompted angry protests, fuelled further by a lack of trust in institutions. Christos Papadimitriou, the head of the railway division at Greece's Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority (HARSIA), stepped down days after a top court prosecutor ordered a probe into HARSIA's findings. In February, HARSIA said the safety gaps, which failed to prevent the head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train on February 28, 2023, had not yet been fixed. It also found that a fireball that followed the collision could not have been caused by train equipment, generating doubts about the freight train's cargo as well as political wrangling. HARSIA decided this week to remove the section which refers to the causes of the fireball, after at least one of the foreign universities cited in its report said it had neither reviewed nor authorised the content. Greece's Supreme Court prosecutor ordered a probe into the developments to determine if there was an attempt to influence a judicial investigation which has been underway since 2023. HARSIA, an independent authority, was only set up in late 2023. It launched its probe in March 2024, more than a year after the crash, which meant it had to rely on others for much of its information. "I tried to serve the public interest... in a difficult situation," said Papadimitriou in his resignation letter, standing by HARSIA's main findings.
Reuters
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Lead investigator of 2023 deadly Greek train crash resigns
ATHENS, April 9 (Reuters) - The supervisor of Greece's national investigation into a 2023 train crash resigned on Wednesday, a move expected to further complicate efforts to shed light on the country's worst rail disaster that killed 57 people. According to opinion polls, most Greeks view the crash as emblematic of the neglect of the country's railways in recent decades and also of a persistent failure by the state to address safety concerns. The crash has prompted angry protests, fuelled further by a lack of trust in institutions. Christos Papadimitriou, the head of the railway division at Greece's Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority (HARSIA), stepped down days after a top court prosecutor ordered a probe into HARSIA's findings. In February, HARSIA said the safety gaps, which failed to prevent the head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train on February 28, 2023, had not yet been fixed. It also found that a fireball that followed the collision could not have been caused by train equipment, generating doubts about the freight train's cargo as well as political wrangling. HARSIA decided this week to remove the section which refers to the causes of the fireball, after at least one of the foreign universities cited in its report said it had neither reviewed nor authorised the content. Greece's Supreme Court prosecutor ordered a probe into the developments to determine if there was an attempt to influence a judicial investigation which has been underway since 2023. HARSIA, an independent authority, was only set up in late 2023. It launched its probe in March 2024, more than a year after the crash, which meant it had to rely on others for much of its information. "I tried to serve the public interest... in a difficult situation," said Papadimitriou in his resignation letter, standing by HARSIA's main findings. Reporting by Yannis Souliotis; Writing by Renee Maltezou Editing by Gareth Jones
Al Jazeera
27-02-2025
- Al Jazeera
Greece's rail disaster due to chronic safety gaps, inquiry finds
Greece's worst rail disaster in 2023 was due to chronic safety gaps that still need to be addressed to prevent a repeat, investigators have said a day before the tragedy's second anniversary. The inquiry by the National Aviation Investigation Agency and Railway Accidents and Transportation Safety (HARSIA), the first by the Greek authorities to conclude, investigated the causes of the crash that killed 57 people as a passenger train and a freight train collided head-on near Larissa. The incident on February 28, 2023, led to public outrage and prompted widespread demonstrations, as the families of the victims accused authorities of trying to cover up evidence. The crash led to a huge fireball and an explosion of unclear origin. HARSIA said most of the victims died in the crash, but up to seven were killed by the fire. The report pointed to the 'possible presence' of an 'unknown fuel' at the scene. An earlier inquiry by experts, funded by the victims' families, had claimed that the freight train was carrying an illegal and unreported load of explosive chemicals, which contributed to the high death toll. The Italian-owned operator Hellenic Train has denied knowledge of any illegal cargo on the freight train. Christos Papadimitriou, HARSIA's head, described the report as an X-ray of the rail system that would help to address deficiencies. The agency noted that dramatic cuts imposed during the 2009-18 Greek economic crisis had greatly undermined the country's rail network, both in staff and other resources. It added that the state-run Hellenic Railways Organisation, or OSE, was 'stretching the limits of their operational staff beyond what is humanly acceptable in a sustainable way'. In addition, the operator Hellenic Train 'could not demonstrate that they had put in place ongoing training, in particular for safety-related communications and relevant non-technical competencies'. HARSIA drafted 17 recommendations for the railway regulator, Hellenic Train, OSE, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation. A judicial investigation is expected to conclude this year.
