SHOCKING videos show a riot in Athens as a Molotov-wielding mob turned part of the city into a warzone overnight, torching cars and clashing violently with riot police.
Street battles broke out just after midnight on Saturday as a group of around 50 people hurled petrol bombs, stones and fireworks at officers outside a police station in Exarchia.
Cops responded with tear gas and flash grenades, but the violence spiralled out of control, with fires raging across Kallidromiou, Benaki, Charilaou Trikoupi and Methonis streets.
Dramatic footage shows cars exploding in fireballs as thick black smoke choked the sky.
Stunned residents, meanwhile, watched the chaos unfold from windows.
A total of 21 cars were torched, with five completely destroyed, and a house and a shop were damaged.
The entrance and ground floor of an apartment building on Emmanuel Benaki Street caught fire and had to be evacuated.
Fire crews scrambled to contain the inferno, with 18 firefighters and seven engines tackling the blazes.
Garbage bins were also set alight and used as makeshift barricades as the mob battled police in running street fights that lasted over an hour.
Cops detained 72 people and reported one officer injured during the mayhem.
Reporters on the ground for Greek media said the explosion of unrest calmed as rapidly a it started – and was over by early on Sunday.
Cops suspect the riot – which began after crowds spilled out of a local concert hall and turned on a nearby police station – may be linked to ongoing fury over a 2023 train disaster.
Greece has been gripped with fury over the Tempi crash that saw a passenger train slam into a freight train killing 57 people.
Anger has boiled over regarding the crash – with the government accused of mismangement and a cover-up.
It has manifested in numerous angry protests and clashes with police – and a bomb attack on Friday night is also linked the the outrage.
“Incidents occurred on Saturday night in Exarchia where unknown persons attacked police forces,” Greek Police said.
“According to ELAS, the incidents began shortly before midnight when groups of unknown persons attacked police forces at the intersection of Kallidromiou and E. Benaki streets with Molotov cocktails and stones, with the police responding by using chemical weapons.”
Police are now investigating to identify the attackers, as scorched vehicles and charred debris litter the streets of Exarchia.
It comes just a couple of days after a bomb exploded in central Athens after authorities received a tip from an anonymous caller.
The blast took place outside the Hellenic Train offices – Greece’s main railway company that was involved in the tragic 2023 rail disaster.
Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/14014125/athens-warzone-mob-attack-police/
