The 2008 Greek "Alexandros riots" started on 6 December 2008, when 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos died from a gunshot wound inflicted by Epaminondas Korkoneas, a special guard of the Greek Police, following an altercation between police and a group of youths in the Exarcheia district of Athens.
The killing resulted in large demonstrations, which in many cases escalated to widespread rioting, with hundreds of youths damaging property and engaging riot police with Molotov cocktails. Demonstrations and rioting later spread to several other cities, including Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city. Outside Greece, solidarity demonstrations, riots and, in some cases, clashes with local police also took place in a number of European cities including London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Bordeaux as well as Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, and the western Cypriot city of Paphos.
While the unrest was triggered by the shooting incident, many commentators described the reactions as expressing deeper causes as well, especially a wide-spread feeling of frustration in the younger generation about specific economic problems of the country, a rising unemployment rate among the young generation and a perception of general inefficiency and corruption in Greek state institutions.
[exclusive photos from a friend in Greece, thanks!]
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