ATHENS – Protesters hurled firebombs at police who responded with tear gas Saturday, as new clashes hit Athens, a fortnight after the police killing of a teenager that sparked nationwide unrest. Hundreds of people gathered in the Exarchia district at the site of the December 6 shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos for a protest organised by youths occupying Athens Polytechnic.At the end of the demonstration, a group threw stones and Molotov cocktails at police and set fire to garbage bins, acts often seen in Exarchia since the boy’s killing.
Police also clashed with protesters after a separate demonstration against racism that was attended by around 200 people in Syntagma Square. “Migrants are killed, schoolchildren are killed,” said banners carried by the protesters who marched to the Greek parliament.
Protesters threw garbage at police who ringed a Christmas tree on the main square. The tree was brought in last week after the original was torched at the height of unrest following the schoolboyÂ’s death.
Later, a group threw a petrol bomb at a building housing a banking services company, although there was only minor damage and the fire was quickly brought under control.
In the northern city of Thessaloniki, youths occupied a hall being used for a film festival while others pelted the city mayor with pastries , police said.
Masked youths Friday attacked the French cultural institute in Athens after about 1,000 students and communist activists staged a march to condemn a second shooting on Wednesday in which the son of a teacherÂ’s union official was slightly wounded.
Protesters demanding justice over GrigoropoulosÂ’s death continue to occupy hundreds of schools and many universities across Greece. The Athens Polytechnic, site of a 1973 student uprising that hastened the fall of military dictatorship in Greece, is among the occupied campuses.