December 08, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 9, 1429

ATHENS, Dec 7: Two Greek police officers were arrested on Sunday over the killing of a 15-year-old boy, touching off a wave of violent protests by youths setting Athens and other Greek cities ablaze.

Thousands of protesters battled police in central Athens on Sunday, smashing the windows of shops and banks with Molotov cocktails, and sending three officers to hospital, said police, who used teargas to disperse the rioters.

And in the western city of Patras, a police officer was in hospital after being beaten up by a group of youths.

In the Greek capital, officers arrested about 10 protesters and about 14 demonstrators were treated for breathing difficulties caused by the teargas, said the police.

Along the Alexandras avenue, at least three banks as well as supermarkets and dozens of shops were set on fire.

Nearly 5,000 people rallied outside the National Museum near where teenage Andreas Grigoropoulos died late on Saturday.

Grigoropoulos was killed by shots fired by police during clashes between police and youths in Athens’ Exarchia district.

One of the two officers in the vehicle allegedly got out of the car and took out his gun, firing three bullets at the boy, who was fatally wounded in the chest. He was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors could only confirm his death.

Epaminondas Korkoneas, 37, who allegedly fired the shots that killed Grigoropoulos, was taken into custody on Sunday, as well as Vassilis Saraliotis, 31, who was in the police car when the fatal shooting happened.

The demonstrations began on the streets of Athens late on Saturday with protesters denouncing the ‘arbitrary’ police action, shouting slogans against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.—AFP