Greece’s govt has referred to as for calm after the second one night time of unrest following the police capturing of a Roma youngster.
Protesters within the commercial Athens area of Aspropyrgos allegedly torched an area tyre trade and a bus on Wednesday, putting in place barricades within the streets.
Roadblocks had been additionally within the space of Chalkidona, about 40 kilometres west of the rustic’s second-largest town, Thessaloniki.
Authorities have issued a caution to citizens of Aspropyrgos to stay indoors with home windows and doorways closed.
“I would like to ask for calm and prudence from all, but also to state clearly that there will not be the slightest tolerance of aggressive, illegal, violent behaviour toward law enforcement officers,” government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said during a regular press briefing on Thursday.
Protests broke out after a 16-year-old boy was shot in the head following a police chase near Thessaloniki.
Authorities had been pursuing the teenager after he failed to pay a bill of €20 at a petrol station. The boy remains in a critical condition in hospital.
The 34-year-old police officer who fired the shot has been suspended and is due to appear in court Friday for questioning on charges of manslaughter with possible intent and illegally firing his weapon.
Greek police say the teenager had tried to ram an officer’s motorbike during the chase with his pickup truck.
Oikonomou has described as a “tragic incident” and said the matter was being fully investigated.
“This does no longer in anyway excuse acts of violence and lawlessness being performed by way of those that wish to protest,” he told reporters.
But the president of the Panhellenic Roma Confederation has denounced the “racist” culture of Greek authorities towards the minority.
“This is a sad incident, the fourth of its sort in a yr in our neighborhood,” Vassilis Pantzos told AFP, adding that the majority of Greek Roma suffer from “exclusion and reside in distress”.
There are between 170,000 and 300,000 Roma other people within the nation.
