Serbian Cities Mark Nine Months Since Deadly Collapse of Concrete Canopy at Novi Sad Railway Station

Novi Sad Railway Station (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Students and citizens in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Cacak, and other cities commemorated on Aug. 1 nine months since the collapse of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad Railway Station, which killed 16 people and seriously injured a young woman.

In Belgrade, several thousand citizens and students marched from the old railway station at Savski Trg to the new one, Belgrade Center – Prokop, where they observed sixteen minutes of silence in honor of the victims. BETA's reporter said that the march took place in complete silence, with no whistles or other noises, as insisted upon by the students who organized the commemorative event.

Students called on participants to bring black pieces of cloth, which they then left in front of Prokop after paying tribute. During the sixteen minutes of silence, participants symbolically pointed their mobile phone flashlights toward the sky, marking nine months since the canopy collapse.

Following the collapse, then Minister of Transport, Construction, and Infrastructure Goran Vesic, and Tomislav Momirovic, who at the time headed the Ministry of Internal and External Trade, resigned. The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime announced on Aug. 1 that eleven people had been arrested within an investigation into financial flows related to the modernization and reconstruction of the railway line linking Novi Sad and the state border (Kelebija), via Subotica. They are suspected of damaging the state budget by more than USD115 million.