Thousands protest in Novi Sad over fatal rail station awning collapse

Demonstrators gathered in Serbia’s second-largest city and regional capital on Tuesday evening after a rail station awning collapse killed 14 people, demanding accountability from officials.

Thousands gathered in the centre of Serbia’s second-largest city of Novi Sad on Tuesday, fuelled by outrage over last week’s collapse of a concrete awning at the rail station that killed 14 people.

Some protesters threw flares, red paint and wastewater on the City Hall building, with most of those gathered not participating. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters, embroiling in a tacit tit-for-tat, but it is unclear whether any arrests were made by Tuesday night.

The protesters surrounded the building in central Novi Sad, with a group of young men breaking windows and throwing stones and other objects despite calls by organisers to remain calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building.

A smaller group of the angrier protesters wearing masks tried to get inside the building and hand over their demands that those responsible for the canopy collapse face justice.

‘People are angry’

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić addressed the public on Tuesday night, saying the police are “showing restraint,” but also issued a warning saying “horrific, violent protests are under way.”

“People of Serbia please do not think violence is allowed,” he said on X. “All those taking part in the incidents will be punished.”

Protest organisers said they wanted to enter the regional capital of Vojvodina’s city hall and submit their demands.

Miran Pogačar, an opposition activist, said, “one glass window can be mended but we cannot bring back 14 lives. People are angry. Serbia won’t stand for this.”

Bojan Pajtić, an opposition politician, said he believed violence and incidents were stoked deliberately by provocateurs.

Thousands first marched through the city streets demanding that top officials step down because of the fatal outer roof collapse last Friday, including Vučić and Prime Minister Milos Vučević, a former mayor of Novi Sad.

The protesters first gathered outside the railway station, where they held a moment of silence for the victims as organisers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting “arrest the gang” and “thieves”.

The protest started peacefully, but some demonstrators later hurled plastic bottles and bricks at the headquarters of Vučić’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party and sprayed red paint on posters of the Serbian president and the prime minister, together with a message that they had blood on their hands.

Earlier this week, the Serbian president said he was mulling a proposal to the country’s parliament that would see his future decided through a referendum, with a view to organising a snap presidential election early next year.

Doubts over renovation work remain

Critics of Serbia’s populist government have attributed the disaster to rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency, and sloppy work during the renovation of the station building, which was part of a wider railway deal with Chinese state companies.

The accident last Friday happened without warning. Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out.

Officials have promised full accountability and faced with pressure, Serbia’s Construction Minister Goran Vesić submitted his resignation on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said that more than 40 people already have been questioned as part of a probe into what happened, including Vesić. Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police.

Opposition parties behind Tuesday’s protest said they are also demanding the resignation of Vučević and that documentation be made public listing all the companies and individuals involved.

The victims included several children, including a 6-year-old. Those injured in the roof collapse remained in serious condition on Tuesday, with domestic media reporting that one of the victims had both of her legs amputated.

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years. Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not included.

However, construction and engineering experts have come forward, stating that the awning was likely renovated.

“It’s not true that no work was done on the awning, because it was covered with glass post-factum,” geologist and engineer Zoran Đajić, who worked as the supervisor of the railway station reconstruction works until 2023, told the domestic press.

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964. The renovated station was inaugurated over two years ago by Vučić and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.