Serbia marks tragedy that sparked student movement

NOVI SAD, SERBIA:

Thousands gathered in Novi Sad on Sunday to honour the victims of a railway station disaster that sparked the anti-government movement which toppled Serbia's right-wing ruling party a week earlier.

The commemoration marked two years since a concrete canopy at the newly renovated railway station in Serbia's second-largest city collapsed, killing 16 people, including two sisters aged six and 10.

Amid nationwide grief and mounting questions over the station's multi-million-euro renovation, the disaster sparked some of Serbia's largest protests since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

"It's hard to go back to the place where it all happened," Dijana Hrka, whose 27-year-old son Stefan was killed in the collapse, told AFP.

"And each time, it gets harder and harder," said Hrka, who burst into tears as she approached a heart-shaped banner bearing her son's name, one of 16 displayed outside the station in memory of the victims.

Crowds filed past for hours, laying flowers and lighting candles.

At 11:52 am (1052 GMT), the exact time the concrete canopy collapsed two years ago, those gathered observed 16 minutes of silence -- one for each victim.

"The emotions are indescribable," Danijela, a 50-year-old Novi Sad resident, told AFP through tears.

"I think everyone who comes here today will feel an energy that is a mixture of positive and negative emotions."