Clashes erupt as tens of thousands protest Greek train tragedy

ATHENS - Greek police fired tear gas at firebomb-throwing protesters outside parliament as tens of thousands demonstrated over the country's worst rail tragedy and called on the prime minister to quit. 

Fifty-seven people were killed, and 14 others remain in hospital after a freight train crashed head-on with a passenger train, carrying mostly students, on February 28.

The biggest protests were in Athens, where over 40,000 people flooded the streets, waving banners that read "it's not an accident, it's a crime" and "it could have been any of us on that train".

Outside parliament, dozens of masked, black-clad youths hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at riot police, who responded by firing volleys of tear gas, an AFP reporter said. Demonstrators also torched a van a few blocks away.

In Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, riot police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters outside the local railway station.

More than 65,000 demonstrators took to the streets nationwide, according to police. 

Alongside the protesters, Greek civil servants staged a 24-hour walkout while doctors, teachers, bus drivers and ferry crew members also went on strike.

Railways were paralysed as train workers extended strike action launched in the aftermath of the accident.

- PM urged to quit -

Last week protests triggered by the crash saw riot police clash repeatedly with demonstrators, including in Athens. 

Calls are growing louder for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis -- who is fighting for re-election this spring -- to quit over the tragedy, which has shone a harsh spotlight on decades of government mismanagement of the rail network.

A station master, who admitted forgetting to reroute one of the trains, has been arrested and charged, but the government has been criticised for seeking to shift the blame mainly on him.

Critics say the station master was inexperienced and was left working alone during a busy holiday period, and accuse officials of failing to pursue safety reforms on the network.

Greece's transport minister resigned on March 1 and Mitsotakis has apologised to victims' families, pledged to get to the root of what happened and embarked on a flurry of public appearances in an apparent bid to soothe anger.