ATHENS (Reuters) – Hooded protesters threw petrol bombs and set off fireworks during clashes with Greek riot police in Athens on Tuesday on the eighth anniversary of a teenager’s killing by police.
The fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in 2008, a year before Greece’s economic crisis began, triggered the worst riots seen in Greece for decades and they lasted for weeks.
The annual march to commemorate the incident usually draws thousands of anti-establishment and anti-austerity protesters.
Riot police stand guard beneath a Christmas decoration in front of the parliament building during an anniversary rally marking the 2008 police shooting of 15-year-old student, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, in Athens, Greece, December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Tuesday’s violence erupted after hundreds marched peacefully in Athens.
Small fires burned in the streets of the district in central Athens where the shooting took place. Demonstrators hurled scores of petrol bombs and rocks at police in riot gear, who responded with tear gas.
Greece is in its eighth year of recession and its economy is struggling with record high unemployment. It has called on its international lenders to abandon demands for harsher austerity once the latest bailout – the third since 2010 – ends in 2018.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Hours of heavy rain and thunderstorms caused massive flooding in the capital of Greece.
Protesters stormed government offices in Athens breaking doors and overturning chairs as they tried to get to Employment Minister, Yiannis Vroutsis. The minister, who was in the office at the time of the assault, escaped the conflict unharmed.
