By Athena Papakosta

The train tragedy in Tempe became the first topic of discussion on all the news networks worldwide from the early hours when the return of the excursionists from the three-day festival of Shrove Monday turned into a nightmare and the scenes of chaos followed one another.

They are talking about a terrifying accident, the deadliest train collision in Greece in decades, while there are extensive reports of how those who survived inside the passenger train resorted to desperate measures as its front carriages were crushed and engulfed in flames. the rest had derailed.

What led to the unspeakable tragedy? Who is to blame? On the Italian public television Rai, the journalist speaks of a pre-ordained tragedy and this is due, as he underlined, to the lack of security systems that the unions and workers have repeatedly complained about.

The British newspaper “The Guardian” with an opinion article refers to the safety of our country’s small railway network, characterizing it – also – as the worst in the European Union, for at least a decade. At the same time, with a drone, he records the tragic images from above, showing the extent of the destruction.

The same was done by the British news network BBC which, at the same time, has started a continuous stream in which it records minute by minute all the developments from the scene of the tragedy but also from the points where the second act of the drama unfolds, the hospitals .

Parents and other relatives anxiously await the results of the identification of the bodies with the photographs of their children in hand. Almost speechless, the foreign journalists listen to them and record what they say. Relatives demand justice. “All those responsible should pay for this mess, for this Greek mess. It is unthinkable” they say, “in the year 2023 trains will derail. We want to see if our children are inside. That’s all we ask for.” The hours fly by dramatically. The voices are getting louder. Tears turn to despair.

Foreign news networks repeat the number of victims over and over again and emphasize that the investigation into the circumstances of the terrifying and deadly conflict remains ongoing. In the reports, they do not fail to mention the lack of the European Train Control System (ETCS) as well as the complaints.

They also refer to the station master who was arrested and is currently being brought before the prosecutor. While, at the same time, they refer to the resignation of the Minister of Transport, Kostas Karamanlis, and to the statement of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, that “everything shows that the drama is due, unfortunately, mainly to a tragic human error”.

The international leaders express their support and solidarity to the Greek people. “We are by your side” wrote in Greek the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, while in Brussels and the buildings of the European institutions the flags fly at half mast. French President Emmanuel Macron also expresses his sadness in Greek, stressing that France will be on the side of the Greek people.

From war-torn Ukraine, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, also expressed his support, while the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, conveyed Russia’s pain by expressing her condolences to the Greek people. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu hastened to contact his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias by phone with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sending a condolence message to the Greek political and state leadership.

The international community watches in shock and continues to express its sadness and solidarity with Greece.