Riots have broken out in several Greek cities after police shot dead a teenage boy in the capital Athens, in the Mediterranean nation’s worst civil disturbances in years.
The rioting began in Athens on Saturday soon after the shooting in the central Exarchia district, where youths threw petrol bombs at police, burned dozens of cars and smashed shop windows.
It quickly spread to Greece’s second largest city of Thessaloniki and other towns in northern Greece.
Cities on the holiday islands of Crete and Corfu also saw protests at the shooting, which prompted Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos to offer his resignation.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose fragile government has been rocked by a series of scandals, rejected it, a ministry spokeswoman said.
“On behalf of the government and the prime minister, I express sorrow for the incident and especially the death of the young boy,” Pavlopoulos said.
“An investigation to clarify the incident has already begun. There will be an exemplary punishment and, above all, measures will be taken so that this will never be repeated.”
Two police officers were arrested and being questioned over the incident, according to a police statement.
The officers said their patrol car had been attacked by 30 youths throwing stones and other objects. When they attempted to arrest the youths, they were attacked again and one of the officers fired three shots, killing the boy, the statement said.
It was the first time since 1985 that police have killed a minor in Greece, a police spokesman said. A hospital official said the boy was 15 years old.
ITN