THOUSANDS OF youths armed with stones, batons and fire bombs engaged in running battles with riot police, destroying shops, banks and cars in cities across Greece last night in a second night of rioting.
The violence, the country's worst civil disturbances in years, erupted late on Saturday when it emerged that a teenage boy had been killed by police in Exarchia, a part of central Athens associated with lawlessness and drug abuse.
Within hours, the protests had spread to Greece's northern capital, Thessaloniki, its western port city of Patras and Chania on Crete, as protesters giving vent to a disaffection exacerbated by the economic crisis went on the rampage.
By last night, several areas, including the commercial strip in Athens and streets around its Polytechnic resembled a battle zone, with glass, rubble and broken mannequins on the sidewalks.
As plumes of smoke filled the capital's skyline, and shopkeepers rushed to clear up the debris, officials reported that more than 30 people had been injured, including police officers, firefighters and a number of passers-by caught up in the chaos. Looting was also rife.
Local TV stations showed stone-throwing youths erecting barricades in Athens as police responded with tear gas.
The rioters in turn sought sanctuary in the grounds of the Polytechnic and Athens University, which traditionally have been off-limits to security forces since the collapse of military rule in 1974.
The chaos deepened yesterday in Athens and Thessaloniki as protesters marched through streets shouting anti-government slogans. "Down with the murderers in uniform," they shouted at the police.
"I've never seen anything like this," said Kostas Koskliouris (42), standing outside the Italian-owned Benetton clothing store where he works. "So much of Athens is destroyed, and it all happened in just a couple of hours." The scale of the protests appeared to catch Greece's embattled centre-right government off guard.
Angered and embarrassed at the killing of the teenager - named as Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the son of a bank manager and a student at a school in Athens - the interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, tendered his resignation, promising that "exemplary punishment" would be taken against the police officers involved.
Two officers were arrested in relation to the shooting and prosecutors said one would be charged with wilful killing and the other with abetting him. A police statement said an officer fired three shots after his car was attacked by 30 youths in Exarchia. An official said the officer described his gunfire as warning shots, but witnesses told Greek television he aimed at the boy.
The prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, publicly apologised to the dead boy's father: "I know nothing can relieve your pain, but I assure you . . . the state will act, as it ought to, so that yesterday's tragedy won't be repeated."
There was little sign last night that pleas for calm were being heeded. "Greek society has been besieged by a feeling of hopelessness, many don't believe in anything," said Stelios Bahis (44), a former merchant marine engineer who works as a museum guard. "It was great that the politicians we have today helped get rid of the junta in 1974. But ever since, they've just created their own cliques of power and sidelined those who are not with them. People have had enough of the scandals, the corruption and especially the police, who we all know are not clean."
There is growing anger in the country at the widening gap between rich and poor. Statistics released earlier this year showed that one in five Greeks lives beneath the poverty line.
Karamanlis's market-oriented government, which is into its second term, has been hit by accusations of sleaze in recent months. Joblessness among the younger generation, especially those aged 20 to 25, is high, with many barely surviving on €500 a month.
"There are a lot of disoriented young people who feel they don't have much to expect from the future and are very disconnected," said Prof Thanos Dokos, an analyst at a Greek think-tank. - (Guardian service)