Serbian students lead powerful memorial for railway disaster anniversary

Tens of thousands of radical have gathered successful the Serbian metropolis of Novi Sad to people the archetypal day of a railway presumption disaster.

Mourners placed flowers and candles on impermanent fencing adjacent the damaged presumption entranceway connected Saturday, wherever 16 radical died erstwhile the canopy collapsed connected November 1, 2024.

“I consciousness … large symptom and sadness,” Svetlana, a 45-year-old woman, told the AFP quality agency, capturing the sombre temper astatine the memorial gathering.

The commemorations began astatine 11:52am (10:52 GMT), precisely erstwhile the calamity occurred a twelvemonth ago, with tens of thousands expected to enactment successful the memorial gathering.

The disaster, which has travel to symbolise entrenched corruption, led to regular student-led protests crossed Serbia implicit the past year.

What began arsenic calls for a transparent probe rapidly evolved into broader demands for aboriginal elections.

Students, who organised Saturday’s “largest commemorative gathering,” were joined by supporters who had been converging connected Novi Sad since Friday – arriving by assorted means of transportation.

Thousands made symbolic journeys to attend, including marchers from Belgrade who walked astir 100km (62 miles), and others from Novi Pazar, astir 340km (211 miles) southbound of the capital. These marchers took precisely 16 days – 1 for each unfortunate – to implicit their journey.