Police raid Villa Amalia squat

Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias suggested Thursday that police would continue to raid squats after detaining eight people at a building near central Athens that had been occupied for more than 20 years.

Police entered the condemned building, known as Villa Amalia, on Acharnon Street early Thursday. Six of those detained were Greeks. Officers said they found 1,500 empty bottles and a flammable liquid at the site. Dendias suggested these were being used to make Molotov cocktails.

“The Greek police force has an obligation [to act] under the constitution and the law,” said Dendias. “I repeat, it also has the orders of the prime minister to restore common sense, to restore legality wherever it is absent.“