The Greek police shot two young sixteen-year-old Roma, Kostas Fragoulis, on Monday at noon. The police motorized unit persecuted a teenager fleeing a gas station in Thessaloniki without paying 20 euros of petrol, when the bullet thrown by the agent sounded in his head.

Immediately after the opening of the event, both in Thessaloniki itself and in the capital of Athens, several protests were organized on Monday. In Thessaloniki, about 1,500 people participated in the demonstration organized by leftist and anarchist agents. There were clashes between police and protesters and police forces launched tear gas and dizzying grenades. Six people were arrested following the protest.

A hundred people from the Romanesque community previously placed barricades on the outskirts of the Ippokrateio General Hospital, allegedly attended by him. The police also resorted to grenades and tear gas.

Police violence has also taken place in Athens, as hundreds of people participated in the demonstration organized in the city centre. Members of the Greek Roma community and various associations reported that "exclusion and police violence against the Roma" is the main cause of the country. Last year, the police shot an 18-year-old Gypsy boy and also took him into account, along with others who have been killed or injured in the fighting with the police in recent years.

In the Exarchia district of the capital, some hundred people met under the slogan Against the repressive forces and barbarism of the State. There, too, the police faced heavy burdens and protesters responded by throwing Molotov cocktails and stones.

Echoes 2008

At the moment, the situation in Fragoulis is unknown. According to the official version, the bullet has been operated at the hospital in Thessaloniki and would now be "in critical condition". However, according to various Greek sources, the authorities may be hiding the death of the teenager, when fourteen years of the shooting murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old boy, by the Athenian police on Tuesday. As mass demonstrations are often organised at this time to remember the murder and gravity of the last case, it seems that political leaders and the media want to avoid a general revolt like that of 2008.