Riots rock Greece for third day

Police fired tear gas at rioting youths smashing up shops today in the third day of rioting sparked by their shooting dead an Athens teenager.

Gangs overturned rubbish bins and set them on fire in Thessaloniki, one of dozens of cities where rioting began on Saturday. Nearly 30 people have been injured and 37 policemen were hurt in Athens over the weekend.

“Under the circumstances, I think we achieved the best possible result. Human life was protected, both that of the demonstrators and the police, that’s the most important thing, ” a police spokesman said.

Rioting, much carried out by self-styled anarchists, broke out across the country within hours of the 15-year-old boy being shot in the central Athens district of Exarchia.

The circumstances surrounding Alexandros Grigoropoulos’ death are still unclear. Two policemen claimed they had come under attack by a group of about 30 youths, and that three warning shots and a stun grenade were fired when they sought out the group a few minutes later.

But witnesses have disputed their accounts, claiming that the policeman intended to shoot the youths. The two policemen have been arrested and charged, one with murder and the other as an accomplice.

The last time a teenager was killed in a police shooting – during a demonstration in 1985 – it sparked weeks of rioting.

Running battles between riot police firing tear gas and about 400 high school students throwing rocks also broke out today in Veria, 40 miles west of Thessaloniki.

Violence was reported in the central Greek city of Trikala, where one police officer was reportedly injured, while authorities were bracing for more potential riots during demonstrations planned across the country, including in Athens, the central city of Larissa and on the island of Corfu.

In the capital, students blocked streets across the city to protest at the 15-year-old’s death, while dozens of youths were still barricaded at two university campuses in Athens. Under Greek law, the police are barred from entering university campuses.

Schools across Athens and the neighbouring port city of Piraeus will remain closed in mourning for the dead teenager The Police Officers’ Association has apologised to the boy’s family, and President Karolos Papoulias sent a telegram to his parents expressing his condolences.

“This death was a blow to the country,” he said. “I am certain that those responsible will be held to account.”

Violence often breaks out between riot police and anarchists during demonstrations in Greece. Anarchist groups are also blamed for late-night firebombings of targets such as banks and diplomatic vehicles.

The self-styled anarchist movement partly traces its roots in the resistance to Greece’s 1967-74 military dictatorship. The youths tend to espouse general anti-capitalist and anti-Establishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police.

The country has seen frequent and sometimes violent demonstrations recently against the increasingly unpopular conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, which has been rocked by a land swap scandal and has struggled to push through economic reforms. The opposition Socialists are now consistently ahead in opinion polls for the first time in eight years.