Renewed clashes between police and gangs of youths broke out last night as a general strike paralysed Greece, already reeling from its worst crisis in decades.
The country's main trade unions brushed aside an official appeal to cancel the strike, which shut down schools, public services, hospitals and airports and brought more than 10,000 people out on to the streets of Athens in protest over the Government's economic policies.
Turnout was lower than expected, but the demonstration quickly turned violent as riot police and youths clashed in the city centre.
Rioters threw firebombs at the main courthouse during a hearing into the shooting of a teenager that triggered the violence. A day after thousands mourned at the funeral of Alexandros Grigiropoulos, forensic experts said the bullet that hit the boy in the chest could have ricocheted. Two officers are being held in connection with the shooting. One has been charged with voluntary homicide and illegal use of his weapon.
The opposition Socialist party claimed that the Government had lost the trust of the people and called for elections.
Yesterday's confrontations were less widespread than in previous days, as the anarchist wave that has devastated parts of central Athens and other major cities began to calm. Concern now centres on the hundreds of shop owners who saw their premises smashed and looted, and who have suffered an estimated €1billion loss through damage and stolen goods.
The embattled Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis, yesterday faced calls from Cabinet members for a bolstering of the police force, whose power was cut back by a Socialist government in the 1980s.
His centre-Right Government, although badly shaken and hanging on to power by a majority of one in the 300-seat Parliament, was unlikely to fall, bolstered by what could be the start of a middle-class backlash against the rioters.
John Carr
The Times
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