Throughout Saturday night thousands of youth attacked banks and department store buildings as well as police stations in Athens and in many other Greek major cities over the police killing of a 16-year old school boy.
He was shot dead by a member of the Greek police Special Guards corps at about 9 pm on Saturday night in a street near the Athens city centre.
The two Special Guards involved have been arrested.
In a statement, they claim that they were confronted by a group of demonstrators and that one of them drew his revolver and fired three shots.
According to the statement, one bullet bounced off the pavement and hit the boy on the chest. The boy was killed instantly.
Lawyer Antonia Legaki, of the Athens Bar’s Constitutional Rights Committee, said that there are at least three eye witnesses who insist that the Special Guard fired straight at the boy.
Last year during a students’ demonstration a Special Guard had fired several shots in the air claiming self defence.
Thousands of students, youth, workers and trade unionists took part on Sunday afternoon in demonstrations in Athens and in the cities of Salonica and Patras.
Students’ leaders said that almost all departments in Athens’ universities are under students’ occupation.
The Greek Minister of the Interior Prokopis Pavlopoulos claimed on Sunday morning that the murder was ‘an isolated incident’ and that the ‘police will carry on with the good work they are doing’. He said that he had ‘offered his resignation to the Prime Minister’ which was not accepted.
The schoolboy’s murder comes after a series of violent police attacks on demonstrating students last Thursday afternoon near the Athens Technical University (Polytechnic).
• The Greek trade unions have called a general strike for this Wednesday against the government’s cuts.
