Rioting has erupted at a march to commemorate the killing of a 15-year-old boy who was shot by Greek police in 2008.
Huw Borland, Sky News Online/H/T Davey Crockett
Police on motorcycles chased rioters amid scenes of chaos at Athens’ main Syntagma Square, with young people punching and kicking officers pushed off their bikes.
At Athens University, masked protesters broke into the building and pulled down a Greek flag, replacing it with a black-and-red anarchist banner.
Violence also broke out in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, where groups threw petrol bombs at police.
A riot police officer hits a protester
The rioters also set fire to several cars and smashed 10 shop fronts. At least 80 people were detained in the northern city.
More than 6,000 police had been deployed across greater Athens in anticipation that demonstrations would turn violent.
Concern was heightened by reports that far-left groups and anarchists from other European countries had travelled to Greece to join the marches.
Ahead of Sunday’s clashes, police detained 160 people following clashes in Athens and a raid on a cafe, where police seized sledgehammers and firebomb-making equipment.
Grigoropoulos’ death sparked riots
Alexandros was killed by a policeman’s bullet on December 6, 2008.
Within a few hours of his death, riots spread from the Greek capital to several cities across the country.
Police were apparently powerless to prevent young people from smashing, looting and burning stores in violence that continued for two weeks.
The new Socialist government, which came to power in October, has been confronted with a surge in armed attacks by far-left and anarchist groups after last year’s shooting.
Politicians had vowed a zero-tolerance approach to violence at Sunday’s commemorations.
