Police make pre-emptive arrests at Grigoropoulos anniversary protests

Police remanded 47 people for questioning on Wednesday during pre-emptive searches in downtown Athens, amid concerns of violence breaking out at marches commemorating 15 years since the police shooting of teen Alexis Grigoropoulos.

Over 700 people joined the first march on Wednesday morning from the Propylaia of Athens University to Parliament on Syntagma Square, during which the Omonia metro station’s ticket booths were vandalized by unidentified individuals

The second march, which began at 6 p.m. is much bigger, attracting an estimated 4,000 people. 

The protesters are expected to gather at 9 p.m. at Tzavella Street in Exarchia, where Grigoropoulos was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer on the night of December 6, 2008.

Approximately 4,000 police officers are flanking the march, while helicopters and drones have been dispatched to monitor the city. Water cannons have also been put on standby if the protests become violent, as they have done in the past.

Grigoropoulos’ killing sparked a week of some of the worst riots Greece has ever known.