Wreckage cleared, days after deadly Greek rail disaster

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Recovery crews in northern Greece cleared the final sections of wreckage from a deadly train collision from the tracks on Monday, as protests and political fallout from the country’s worst ever rail disaster continued.

Heavy construction machinery was used to move remaining parts of shattered rail cars at Tempe, 375 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens, where 57 people were killed in the Feb. 28 crash. Twelve people remain hospitalized with injuries, five of them in serious condition.

A 59-year-old station manager in central Greece has been charged with negligent homicide and was jailed late Sunday pending trial.

National rail services remain halted by strikes while protests were set to continue in several towns in Greece, mostly led by student groups, following days of often-violent demonstrations.

The country’s center-right government has come under fire for blaming human error for the disaster, a conclusion later walked back by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who faces a general election before the summer.

In a letter sent Monday to a senior prosecutor heading the disaster investigation, Mitsotakis requested that the apparent lack of safety infrastructure be given priority in the probe.