Over 200 arrested in Athens

A protest through central Athens to mark the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager quickly turned violent as marchers damaged shopfronts and bus stations and set fire to looted clothes.

Clashes continued late into the night in the neighbourhood of Exarchia, a haven for extreme left-wingers and anarchists, with youths ambushing police forces with firebombs and rocks thrown from balconies.

Police said they detained 211 people.

Confrontations also broke out between police and demonstrators marching in the northern city of Thessaloniki. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades after a crowd beat up two plain-clothed officers.

The marches were commemorating the December 6 2008 police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the capital, which led to two weeks of the most violent rioting Greece had seen in decades.

The teenager and his friends were arguing with two policemen when one officer went to his patrol car, retrieved his gun and shot the youth. The officer, Epaminondas Korkoneas, is serving a life sentence.