Protest fears lead to tight security at EU summit

WARSHIPS, missiles and 15,000 police and special armed forces guarded the site where Europe’s leaders gathered last night for their three-day summit in Greece.

It was the tightest security operation ever witnessed at an EU gathering amid warnings that huge demonstrations were expected.

The meeting is being held on a peninsula in north eastern Greece with the government heads being flown in on helicopters.

The resort where the meeting is being held has been ringed off with concrete fences and steel containers across every road and bridge.

A special metal net has been sunk into the bay surrounding the resort where the leaders are meeting and staying.

Three destroyers are at anchor in the sea off the resort with smaller vessels patrolling the region.

Stinger and patriot missiles have been deployed in the hills behind the resort while the army has orders to shoot down any aircraft suspected of interfering with air transport carrying the leaders and ministers to the conference.

In an effort to keep demonstrators away, the Greek authorities offered them free camping and other facilities 120 kilometres away in the country’s second largest city, Thessaloniki.

The police said they expected up to 30,000 anti-globalisation and other demonstrators but yesterday’s rallies were peaceful affairs with the largest being organised by the Greek communist party.

The locals in the small towns and villages in the peninsula where the summit is being held were busy barricading their windows and parking their cars off the streets in anticipation of trouble.

But security is so strong, demonstrators will have major problems getting into the region with armed police at every main and side road.

The start of the meeting was delayed by over an hour when the bright sunshine gave way to torrential rain, interfering with helicopter flights.