Greek Police to Investigate Shooting That Sparked Athens Riots

Greek Police to Investigate Shooting That Sparked Athens Riots


Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Greek authorities pledged to investigate after a police officer shot and killed a 15-year-old youth, triggering riots in which hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces and set fire to banks, stores and cars.

``Only the final investigation will show what happened,'' Interior and Public Order Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said yesterday. ``The truth will be uncovered, and there will be exemplary punishment.''

Pavlopoulos called for calm, saying demonstrators should refrain from destroying property and threatening ``others who aren't to blame.''

Police fired tear gas to disperse rioters at demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki yesterday. A day earlier, about 1,000 youths rampaged through central Athens, burning and attacking banks, stores and cars, after a policeman shot and killed the youth in the capital's neighborhood of Exarhia.

Two officers and the head of the local police station were suspended and three prosecutors appointed to investigate the incident, the ministry said in a statement. Pavlopoulos said he and his deputy, Panagiotis Chinofotis, offered their resignations, which weren't accepted.

The protests spread to other Greek cities and to the island of Crete. In Athens, six people were arrested for looting and two department stores on the city's main shopping street, run by Sprider SA and Fourlis SA, were gutted by fires. Eight stores, seven banks and 20 vehicles were torched in the capital.

Fighting Police

Skai television reported a group of 300 youths broke windows, set fires and battled with riot police in Athens after demonstrators marched down Alexandras avenue, where the police headquarters is located.

Marches were also held yesterday in Rethymno, Crete and the port city of Patras where demonstrators threw rocks at police and set fire to garbage cans, state-run Athens News Agency said.

The unidentified youth was killed after a patrol car was attacked in Exarhia by a group of about 30 youths at 9 p.m. local time Dec. 6, according to a ministry statement.

BLOOMBERG