Students from southwestern Serbia who set off more than ten days ago on a trek across the country to highlight a deadly railway station disaster a year ago arrived in Belgrade late Tuesday.

The group, which has been joined by a handful of additional students since departing from the southwestern town of Novi Pazar on October 16, headed out Monday from the central Serbian town of Ub after spending the night there.

As they marched through Belgrade they were welcomed by crowds of cheering residents.

The students hope to reach Novi Sad on November 1 when a major rally is planned to mark one year since a canopy collapsed in the northern city's train station, killing 16 people.

They believe the victims died because government corruption led to sloppy renovations at the station.

Students have been at the forefront of rallies over the past year that have protested the train station deaths, and shaken the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic.

They have called for early elections, which Vucic has rejected. Scores of students have been detained or threatened under a government crackdown.

Nonetheless, tens of thousands of people are expected to converge in Novi Sad on November 1.

Students from Novi Pazar — a predominantly Bosniak-Muslim town — also aim to bridge a decades-old ethnic divide stemming from the wars of the 1990s.

AP video shot by: Ivana Bzganovic