Vandals’ work quickly erased

Municipal units moved quickly to clean up the widespread damage wreaked across the city center on Thursday night by self-styled anarchists who clashed with police during a demonstration against a new law regulating street protests, with most of the graffiti erased from flower boxes and hotel facades by early Friday. 

According to Deputy Mayor Nikos Avramidis, the graffiti was relatively easy to remove as the flower boxes, which had been set up on streets as part of City Hall’s Grand Walk initiative, had been covered with a hydrophobic coating.

Vandals also hacked chunks of marble from the steps outside hotels. 

Nine people were arrested during the clashes, in which nine police officers were injured.