The Greek government has appealed for calm following rioting sparked by the fatal shooting of a teenage boy by police.
Thousands of youths rampaged through Athens and the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki today, burning dozens of shops and vehicles in a second day of rioting after police shot dead a 15-year-old boy.
Greece's worst protests in years erupted in the capital late yesterday after the shooting of the teenager, and quickly spread to Thessaloniki and the tourist islands of Crete and Corfu.
Police said more than 34 people had been injured, including one woman with a serious head wound, while 20 were detained.
‘We have briefed the Prime Minister,’ Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos, whose offer to resign was rejected, told reporters after a government meeting. ‘The rage is understandable but it cannot turn against all society.’
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose government has been shaken by scandals and an economic slowdown, pledged action in a public apology to the father of the dead boy.
In central Athens, glass, debris and charred cars were strewn across streets choked with tear gas. Few pedestrians ventured out, holding handkerchiefs to their faces.
For most of today, protesters chanting ‘Killers in Uniform’ rained petrol bombs down on rows of riot police while helicopters hovered overhead.
More than 30 shops and a dozen banks were torched in the capital's busiest commercial districts ahead of the busy Christmas period.
As night fell, more than 1,000 students played a cat and mouse game with police. Police said they planned to pull out of the area overnight in order to defuse tensions.
In Thessaloniki, a protest by more than 1,000 people descended into violence when marchers lobbed firebombs at police, set fire to a bank and smashed several stores.
Rioters also clashed with police in the western city of Patras and outside police headquarters in Crete's second city of Chania. On Corfu, rioters smashed up four cars and two shops, and an 18-year-old woman was injured.
