8 remain in custody following trouble at Thessaloniki vocational school

Eight people, including five minors, remain in custody on Friday evening after they were among 38 people arrested following disturbances at a vocational training high school in Thessaloniki.

A case file is now being prepared against the eight while the other 30 have been released.

The arrests followed a second day of disturbances by suspected far-right groups outside the school in the western suburb of Evosmos.

Those arrested are aged between 15 and 21. Seven of them are students of the school and one is a junior high school student.

Earlier, a group of around 100 mostly black-clad youths blocked the entrance to the vocational school, barricading themselves behind a row of dumpsters and throwing stones, flares and other projectiles at journalists, teachers and anyone else trying to approach the building.

The tension in western Thessaloniki first erupted on Tuesday at another vocational training high school, in Stavroupoli, when a similar group of youths mustered inside school grounds and attacked a rally held outside by leftist student groups objecting to the government’s educational policy.

[AMNA]