ANTHEE CARASSAVA and MEG BORTIN
The New York Times
December 18, 2008
ATHENS — A large but peaceful demonstration in central Athens turned violent Thursday when rioters threw rocks and firebombs at the police and tried to burn down the city’s main Christmas tree, which had just been replaced after being torched in a protest last week.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
The rioters, a group of youths including anarchists, had been marching behind the demonstrators.
The police fought back with tear gas and drove the rioters back toward the administrative headquarters of Athens University and the university’s law school. After another round of pitched battles between masked rioters and the police, several hundred militant protesters entered the law school and seized control of it.
Christmas shoppers fled the streets and retailers rolled down their shutters as protestors smashed store fronts and burned at least four cars.
The events Thursday were the most violent since the first days of rioting that erupted in Greece after the fatal shooting by the police on Dec. 6 of a 15-year-old, Alexandros Grigorolopoulos. Protests over the shooting have caused more than $1.3 billion in damage to businesses at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
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