Youths hang protest banners from Acropolis

PROTESTERS hung two giant banners off the Acropolis yesterday with slogans calling for mass demonstrations across Europe and resistance, after days of violent protests sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens.

About a dozen protesters held the pink banners over the walls of the ancient citadel, Greece’s most famous monument, one bearing the word “Resistance” written in large black letters in Greek, English, Italian and German. The other called for mass demonstrations across Europe today.

The banners were taken down after two hours.

Student demonstrations are already planned in Athens and Greece’s second largest city of Thessaloniki today to protest the December 6 police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

The riots that followed the teenager’s death are the worst Greece has seen in decades, feeding off widespread dissatisfaction with the unpopular conservative government and anger over social inequality and economic hardship.

More than 300 people were detained or arrested in the rioting.

Youths threw petrol bombs yesterday at a riot police bus in central Athens, police said. The driver managed to escape unharmed but the vehicle was damaged.

About 100 high school students gathered outside the capital’s main court complex, pelting riot police guarding the building with stones, eggs, rocks and yogurt to demand that those detained in the riots be freed.

In Thessaloniki, police said a bank and a local citizens advice office were firebombed before dawn yesterday in attacks that caused damage but no injuries.