Monday, March 12, 2007

Athens, Greece - Over the weekend a squad of riot police, on Messologiou Street in the Exarchia district, were attacked by a group of about 50 anarchists. The officers were beaten with metal pipes and had their shields and helmets taken. The riot squad was guarding a bookstore owned by the extreme right-wing LAOS Party member Adonis Georgiadis, because the business had been already been attacked a number of times in the past. Many of the officers in the detail abandoned their posts and their fellow officers when confronted. Others begged for mercy saying "we have families and kids." Two of the officers were seriously injured, one of whom lost his teeth.

There were also two explosions that damaged the local offices of the ruling New Democracy Party and a bank. The bombs were constructed out of improvised gas canisters.

Early Monday morning a group of about a dozen youths from a nearby university attacked a police station in the Zografou area of central Athens. According to authorities the grouped hurled a barrage of petrol bombs that damaged a patrol car and the building's entrance.