Thousands stood in silence for fifteen minutes in the southern city of Nis in Serbia to commemorate those killed in a railway station disaster in November, in a student-led protest that has grown into the biggest threat yet to the country’s president’s grip on power.
Mass demonstrations have gathered momentum in the country since 15 people were killed when a roof collapsed at a newly renovated train station in Serbia’s second-biggest city of Novi Sad.
On Saturday, hundreds of students marched, ran or rode bikes to Nis, visiting various towns on their way, and gaining the support of people living outside the country’s urban centres.
From the early hours of Saturday morning, residents had also set up improvised stalls across the city’s streets, offering food and refreshments to the crowds streaming through, waving flags, carrying banners against corruption, and blowing whistles and vuvuzelas.
At 11:52 local time (10:52 GMT), the time when the tragedy occurred, everyone gathered in the city’s central square to pay tribute to the victims by standing in silence for 15 minutes.
After that, music echoed through the city as loudspeakers blared chants of “Serbia has risen” and “Pump it” – a slogan symbolising the students’ resolve to keep protesting.
“This is the way to make a revolution,” Tarek, a 22-year-old graphics designer from Novi Pazar told the Reuters news agency.
“It is the right way to achieve the change, to create a better future, a functional state without corruption.”
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