Ten Greek police officers were injured and sixteen people arrested during clashes in a suburb of Athens, Tuesday March 9, on the sidelines of a demonstration bringing together 5,000 people against police violence.

According to an AFP photographer on site, the scuffles started when a group of around 200 hooded people headed towards the police station in Nea Smyrni, a supposedly quiet suburb of Athens, where a young man was beaten. with batons on Sunday by a police officer during a control of containment measures.

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The thugs threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the police station and the police responded with tear gas and water cannons.

A dozen garbage cans were on fire, forcing firefighters to intervene, AFP noted.

Among the ten injured police officers, three remain hospitalized, according to a police statement.

One of them suffered serious head injuries but "his life is not in danger," a police spokesperson told AFP.

According to TV footage, protesters knocked the officer off his motorcycle before hitting him.

Journalists and photographers on site were also attacked by hooded demonstrators, it was noted.

Sixteen people were arrested and will be brought to trial on Wednesday before the Athens prosecutor's office.

The police reported, in their statement, of offenses of "attempted murder", "serious bodily harm", "violence", "disturbance of the common peace" and "arson".

A video that ignites the powder

Images of a young man on the ground, beaten with a baton by a police officer on Sunday afternoon in Nea Smyrni Square, five kilometers from downtown Athens, in the presence of at least three other officers, have gone viral.

In the video, the young man can be heard shouting "I'm in pain", while passers-by are outraged at the behavior of the police.

In protest, nearly 5,000 people, according to the police, marched against the "police excesses" Tuesday evening, waving banners on which one could read "The cops out of our districts" or "The parks are made for laughs and not to hear: 'I'm in pain' ".

Police said they arrested protesters in possession of Molotov cocktails and iron bars, before the clashes began.

The main opposition party, Syriza, condemned "unequivocally those who, by force, chose to tarnish a peaceful demonstration of thousands of residents, students, workers and traders of Nea Smyrni".

"Kicks all over the body"

The prosecution ordered a preliminary investigation "to examine possible criminal acts perpetrated by police officers" Sunday in Nea Smyrni, according to a judicial source.

The police also opened an internal investigation.

According to the police, this incident started when the police were attacked by "thirty people who caused injuries to two of its agents", which many residents of Nea Smyrni denied.

Eleven people arrested on Sunday were prosecuted for "assault and battery, insults and violations of measures to stem the Covid-19 epidemic", we learned Tuesday from a judicial source.

In an interview published Tuesday in the Editors' Journal (Efsyn), the 29-year-old explains that the police wanted to impose fines of 300 euros on families who were sitting in the square, and that he wanted to reason with the agents .

"A policeman then came towards me and took aim at me. He pushed me before the other policemen kicked me all over the body," he explains.

The media and lawyers have denounced an increase in police attacks in recent months during student demonstrations or leftist groups.

With AFP

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