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ATHENS : A third day of street battles erupted throughout Greece on Monday amid spiralling anger over the police killing of a 15-year-old boy, as Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis vowed to put an end to the rioting.
Youths attacked cars and store-fronts in Salonika, Greece's second largest city, and clashes broke out in the central city of Trikala as students occupied universities in Athens and other major centres.
The unrest also spread to the popular resort island of Rhodes where police fired tear gas at protesting pupils, while there were scuffles and two arrests outside the Greek embassy in London during a demonstration there.
As despairing traders sifted through the wreckage left by weekend rioting, Caramanlis appeared on national television to denounce "the extremist elements who exploited the tragedy.
"The unacceptable and dangerous events cannot and will not be tolerated," he added in his first public appearance since the start of the crisis.
The unrest sparked by the death on Saturday of Alexis Grigoropoulos has left dozens wounded, caused widespread destruction and put new pressure on Karamanlis, already under fire over the economy and a number of scandals.
In violence on Monday, about 300 students and other youths attacked cars and stores in the centre of Salonika, in the north of the country.
Three police were hurt in clashes in Trikala. Dozens of youths broke off from a demonstration by about 1,000 students and attacked banks, shops and cars on the city's main square.
They pelted a police station with stones, damaging several cars parked outside and lightly injuring three officers. Youths also attacked a police station in nearby Despotiko.
Youths who occupied university campuses in Athens and Salonika hurled rocks and petrol bombs at police through the night.
Hundreds of school pupils also marched on Greece's parliament.
"Shame on you, down with the murderers' government," the pupils shouted as they pelted riot police facing them with oranges and plastic water bottles.
One girl carried a banner reading "No More Blood".
In a demonstration held in front of the police headquarters in Athens, three pupils took off their clothes and lay down at the building's front entrance.
Also in Athens, firefighters were called to 24 banks, 35 stores, 24 cars, 12 homes and a district office of the ruling New Democracy party which was hit by a small bomb, while six police vehicles were left in ruins.
Along the main Alexandras Avenue buildings belonging to the National Bank of Greece, the Emporiki Bank and the Bank of Piraeus - as well as supermarkets and dozens of shops - were set on fire during the clashes.
Firebombs damaged the ruling party's offices in Salonika and Kavala. Police buildings were attacked in Hania on the island of Crete and in the normally quiet cities of Komotini and Drama.
Greece's education minister said the country's high schools would remain closed on Tuesday in a mark of respect to Grigoropoulos' death.
"We participate in the mourning," Education Minister Evripidis Stylianidis told reporters. "All gymnasiums and lyceums will be closed on Tuesday."
Students plan a rally in the capital on Tuesday and a general strike planned for Wednesday has become a new focus for the radical left to show its anger.
Greek police have arrested two officers involved in the shooting of the teenager in the Athens district of Exarchia on Saturday.
Grigoropoulos was among youths who had thrown stones at a police car and was killed by shots fired during subsequent clashes with police.
One of the two officers left his vehicle to fire three times at the teenager, who was hit in the chest, witnesses said. Grigoropoulos was confirmed dead in a nearby hospital.
Epaminondas Korkoneas, 37, who allegedly fired the shots, and his partner Vassilis Saraliotis, 31, were both detained.
Demonstrations began in Athens almost straight away with news of the death and calls for action spread by text messages.
The prime minister expressed regrets in a letter to the parents of the dead teenager. "In these difficult moments please accept my condolences for the unfair loss of your son," Caramanlis wrote.
In 1985, 15-year-old Michalis Kaltezas was shot by a police officer, triggering violent clashes with the police in Exarchia. Exarchia was also the scene of major student protests in 1973, which led to the fall of the country's military dictatorship in 1974. - AFP/ms
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