Tuesday, December 08, 2009
RIOT police clashed with stone-throwing youths in Athens yesterday, as violence marred a second day of demonstrations held to mark the fatal shooting of a teenager by police a year ago.
Police charged the crowd with tear gas and made nine arrests after several hundred youths, some as young as 12, hurled stones at store windows and the security forces as some 5,000 demonstrators set off towards parliament.
Another two youths were arrested for pelting a police station with stones, as thousands of students rallied to pay tribute to Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was shot dead at age 15 during mass youth riots last year, a police source said.
Some 6,000 officers were deployed to prevent further trouble in the Greek capital after demonstrations around the country turned violent at the weekend, with 30 people injured and dozens arrested in Athens and other cities.
The rector of Athens University, Christos Kittas, was among those injured on Sunday as dozens of hooded youths broke into the university’s offices on the sidelines of a large demonstration in the city centre.
Fighting between riotpolice and protesters left the streets around central Syntagma Square littered with chunks of broken masonry and burning piles of garbage, which was not cleared away due to a strike by refuse collectors.
The police department said 26 officers and four protesters were hurt in the clashes, but the total number of injured was believed to be higher according to reporters at the scene.
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