Roma fire at police in western Attica
Clashes between groups of ethnic Roma and police escalated Thursday evening when a group of 25 Roma opened fire against special police forces in the suburb of Aspropyrgos, west of the capital Athens, police say.
No injuries were reported. Police said the assailants used rifles.
To the west of Aspropyrgos, outside the town of Megara, Roma put fire to a car and then threw a barrage of rocks at firefighters that responded to the incident. Traffic in the old Athens-Corinth highway has been suspended over a 3-kilometer stretch. There is also no traffic in the Aegaleo Ring Road near Aspropyrgos.
In the western Athens suburb of Korydallos, young Roma set fire to dumpsters and tires.
Elsewhere in the western Athens area, police raided Roma camps on four locations, arresting seven individuals and detaining a further four. Those arrested were charged with drug possession.
Unrest among Roma erupted early Monday when one of their own, a 16-year-old boy, was shot in the head by a policeman near the city of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece; the youngster was being pursued after a gas station owner reported him for leaving without paying after filling his pickup truck with €20 worth of gasoline. Police said the 16-year-old attempted to ram a pursuing police motorcycle with his truck. Police fired two shots at him. He is hospitalized in serious condition.
