A riot squad officer faces a wall of self-proclaimed anarchists as a Molotov cocktail explodes around him in Thessaloniki on Saturday afternoon. Police arrested 29 youths during rioting by some 500 masked youths, some of them from outside Greece, who threw gasoline bombs, stones and steel bolts during a protest against the EU summit being held in Halkidiki. Police used tear gas. About 25 stores were seriously damaged.

Twenty-seven people, two of them minors, will appear before an investigating judge today to answer to criminal charges following their arrest in extensive rioting in Thessaloniki on Saturday afternoon. Two others were released pending trial as they are minors charged with misdemeanors. The 29 include eight foreigners — two each from Austria and Spain, and a Briton, an American, a Cypriot and a Syrian.

They were among some 500 self-proclaimed anarchists who clashed with police while more than 40,000 demonstrators protested against globalization, the United States and the EU in an otherwise peaceful protest coinciding with the EU summit in Halkidiki. Many of Thessaloniki’s shopkeepers had erected metal fortifications outside their stores, but the youths damaged some 25 stores, including a bookstore, a McDonald’s franchise and a corner kiosk. Local authorities had provided hospitality to protesters in a bid to avert violence.