Greek police fire tear gas at rioters

Riot police guarding the Greek Parliament on Thursday fired tear gas at 5 000 protesters taking part in the latest rally against the police killing of a schoolboy, it was reported.

Youths tried to breach a police cordon guarding the Syntagma Square complex, but they were met with a cloud of tear gas which spread across central Athens.

Demonstrators came back at security forces with a hail of oranges and also set ablaze bins and a car as they retreated towards the Athens Polytechnic University.

Police had warned the public to avoid the marchers’ route from the university district, after students, teachers, unions and left-wing groups vowed to step up their wave of protests, fed by wider anger against the government.

Greek police earlier this week sent out appeals to foreign countries in a bid to renew depleted stocks of tear gas.

Twelve days after the fatal police shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos, further unrest has broken out over the wounding of a 16-year-old son of a Greek teachers’ union official in a rifle attack on Wednesday night in an Athens suburb.

Police said none of their officers was in the area at the time of the incident.—AFP