University students shout slogans during an anniversary rally marking the 2008 police shooting of 15-year-old student Alexandros Grigoropoulos, in Athens, Greece, December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Athens: Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Athens on Tuesday against police violence, a day after a Roma youth was shot in the head in a police pursuit.
The demonstration was part of planned annual commemorations in major Greek cities to mark the death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old fatally shot by police in 2008.
His death sparked days of youth riots in major cities at the time.
Some 600 protesters took part in one of two planned demonstrations in Athens, police said.
Around 4,000 police were deployed in the capital on Tuesday, with tensions running high after Monday's shooting.
A police motorcyclist in Greece's second city Thessaloniki early on Monday shot a 16-year-old Roma boy after he drove away from a petrol station without paying.
The teenager was hospitalised in critical condition.
One of the banners carried by demonstrators in Athens made reference to the unpaid 20-euro ($21) petrol bill.
"A life is worth 20 euros," it said.
A police officer has been arrested and charged with attempted manslaughter over the incident.
The Greek police department said the youth had tried to ram officers in pursuit on motorbikes in his attempt to evade arrest.
A group of Roma on Tuesday threw objects at riot police outside the Thessaloniki courts. In Athens, another group set fire to bins on a major highway.
There are frequent claims that police in Greece are poorly trained. A senior police unionist on Tuesday told state TV ERT that the officer who shot the Roma teen is a 14-year veteran.
On Monday evening, Roma protesters burned roadblocks and threw Molotov cocktails at riot police, as well as smashing shop windows in the centre of Thessaloniki.
Another Roma youth was killed in 2021 near the port of Piraeus, also in a police pursuit.
