Masked youths set up burning barricades and threw fire bombs and chunks of marble at riot police on Thursday, after a protest march erupted into new fighting that sent Christmas shoppers and panicked parents fleeing to safety.
Mothers snatched children from a carousel in the main square.
Waiters stumbled from cafes choking on tear gas fired by police at rioters trying to burn the capital’s Christmas tree, replaced just days ago after another tree was torched.
After two weeks of unrelenting rioting set off by the fatal police shooting of a teenager, a slogan spray-painted outside the Bank of Greece summed up the mood as Greeks prepared for Christmas: “Merry crisis and a happy new fear.”
But protesters’ call for European-wide demonstrations of support — urged in banners defiantly unfurled from the ancient Acropolis on Wednesday — met with no apparent response.
Thursday’s clashes broke out in front of parliament at Syntagma Square during a demonstration against police brutality. The Dec. 6 death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos unleashed rage that has fed off widespread dissatisfaction with economic hardship, social inequality and the unpopular conservative government’s policies.
About 200 youths wearing masks put up burning barricades in the streets of the Kolonaki district, throwing gasoline bombs and hammering chunks of marble and concrete off buildings to hurl.
Police answered with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.
As the fighting escalated, frightened parents hurried their children away from the carousel in Syntagma Square. Riot police formed a line at the replacement Christmas tree and fired tear gas to drive off youths trying to set it ablaze.
Businessmen and shoppers ran for cover on Voukourestiou Street, while scooter and motorcycle drivers on a nearby road screeched to a halt, blinded by the tear gas.
Athenians, some angry but many stoically resigned to the fighting, picked their way past burning barricades and rocks scattered on the streets, carrying home groceries and Christmas presents. Many residents and shop owners in the city center now carry surgical or gas masks for protection against tear gas.
Police said they made at least three arrests as violence persisted past sundown then tailed off. They did not immediately have any information on injuries.
Since the rioting began, hundreds of businesses have been smashed, burned or looted in cities across Greece.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including