Running battles between Greek police and thousands of protesters furious at the shooting of a 15-year-old student intensified yesterday as antagonism boiled over outside the cemetery where the youth was being buried.
On the eve of a general strike that threatens to plunge the country into further chaos, security forces fought pitched battles with stone-throwing youths outside Athens's parliament and in Salonika, the northern capital.
As thousands descended on the coastal suburb of Faliro for the funeral of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, who was killed by a bullet to the chest on Saturday, hooded youths chanting "pigs, murderers" began baiting police. Before the funeral had ended they began hurling stones, iron bars and marble slabs at officers, sending residents running for cover. As the boy's flower-covered casket was lowered into the ground the air was thick with acrid smoke from successive rounds of teargas fired in retaliation by the police.
The worst civil disturbances to hit Greece in decades, the riots have not only dealt another blow to the already badly dented popularity of the ruling conservatives but also left a trail of devastation.
In Athens alone, officials estimate that more than 200 stores, 50 banks and countless cars have been damaged. Shops are shut and streets devoid of shoppers. Hospitals have also reported an increase in the number of wounded, already believed to have exceeded 70 police and others.
Last night as looters went on the rampage, police in a change of tactics, began making arrests.
With the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, facing growing criticism for his handling of the crisis - and his single-seat majority in the 300-member parliament looking increasingly vulnerable - the opposition leader, George Papandreou, of the Socialists, stepped up calls for early elections. Coming out of emergency talks - requested by Karamanlis in an attempt to contain the crisis - Papandreou said it had become clear the government was incapable of defending the public from rioters.
"It cannot handle this crisis and has lost the trust of the Greek people," said the leader, whose Pasok party has surged in the polls in recent months. "The best thing it can do is resign and let the people find a solution."
That was a view widely shared by many of the leftist and self-styled anarchists fuelling the riots. At the Athens Polytechnic, now the centre of the groups' operations, young men and women broke up marble slabs and quietly stocked up on the firebombs they have been throwing at police. Standing behind makeshift barriers of burning rubbish bins, they promised to turn the unrest into "an uprising the likes of which Greece has never seen".
As the site of the revolt against the colonels' regime in 1974, the polytechnic's colonnaded buildings are off-limits to security forces under a constitutional clause that gives students asylum on its grounds.
"This is not just about the kid, it's about our dreadful education and economic situation. That's what pushed us on to the streets," insisted one youth who called himself Andreas. "It's our belief and hope that this is the beginning of a rebellion against the system."
The chaos, he said, had exposed the deep-seated anger of Greeks who after the introduction of the euro have not only struggled to make ends meet but have increasingly felt deceived by a system that thrived on corruption, party political affiliations and patronage.
"All of us have poor parents who are really struggling," said Andreas as he sat cross-legged before a makeshift fire blazing in the polytechnic's courtyard.
For young Greeks like Andreas, who belong to a lost generation without work or hope, it is a rage that has been fuelled by allegations of corruption and the seemingly relentless scandals involving sex, money and the church which have swirled around the conservatives - and for which, despite public outrage, no one has been punished.
"We all thought it would take one incident for things to go up, and with the police killing of the teenage boy that is exactly what happened," said a veteran political analyst, Konstantinos Angelopoulos.
Yesterday, the rioting spread to Crete and Corfu, where hundreds took to the streets, and intensified in at least a dozen cities across the country. Greek demonstrators occupied the country's consulate in Paris, following protests in London, Berlin and Nicosia on Monday.
Yesterday, Karamanlis appealed to Greece's two largest trade unions to call off strikes that are expected to ground flights and cut ferry links.
The market-oriented government faces growing anger over its tough fiscal policies from workers demanding more state social spending as well as salary and pension increases. Rejecting the prime minister's plea, unions called on workers to participate in the walk-out "and demonstrate our opposition to state repression and the consequences of the [economic] crisis".
Voices from the street
Andreas, 19, student protester "The police are pigs and they deserve what they get. They don't have the balls to go after the anarchists. Instead they pick on us kids, stop us in the streets all the time. It's wrong to smash up shops, but personally I see it as a symbolic act to throw stones and rocks at the police, because they're bastards."
Nikos, 36, fireman "Am I surprised? Of course. Everything has happened so quickly. It's not just that the riots spread so fast, it's their intensity. In Athens we've had 200 cars and 40 buildings go up in flames, most of them in one night. We're all sick with worry."
Sophia, 44, shopkeeper "Twenty years of work down the drain. I turned up at my shop today and they had taken everything, even the lining in the drawers. They managed to get past the steel blinds. Why have they targeted the little man? We're not to blame for the death of a child. Tell me who is going to pay?"
Nikos Yiannos, 18, student "I agree with the protests against the police because, after all, they killed the kid, but I don't agree with the destruction. Our police aren't like police elsewhere in Europe. They aren't educated and it's because they're not properly trained that things have got so out of control."
Zoe Papanidou, 19, student "There were many reasons why these riots happened. The situation was explosive, socially and economically. The state undermines people. You feel it is violating your rights. At some point the lid was going to burst from the pot."
The riots in Greece that started on December 6 have entered their fourth night. These are the worst riots the Hellenic Republic has witnessed in decades.
A building in Athens after it was burned by rioters.
The riots were triggered when Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old student, was shot and killed by police. The police claim that Grigoropoulos was throwing a bomb at them when they fired.

Cities throughout Greece have been hit by the unrest, not just Athens. Hundreds of shops and businesses have been destroyed.

"No one has the right to use this tragic incident as an excuse for acts of violence," said Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, New Democracy party.

"The government cannot handle this crisis and has lost the trust of the Greek people," George Papandreou of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement said. "The best thing it can do is resign and let the people find a solution ... We will protect the public."

The rioters are organizing on the campus of National Technical University of Athens (Athens Polytechnic). A constitutional clause enacted after the overthrow of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 prevents security forces from entering the campus.
One of the banks that were set ablaze.
''The Guardian'' is reporting that the University is being used by young men and women to stock up on firebombs and break up marble slabs to throw at police. From behind their makeshift barriers, they vowed the unrest would become "an uprising the likes of which Greece has never seen."

"We are experiencing moments of a great social revolution," leftist activist Panagiotis Sotiris told Reuters. Sotiris is among those occupying a university building. "The protests will last as long as necessary," he added. 

"A switch has been flicked and the pressure cooker's boiled over," said David Lea, an analyst at Control Risks Group in London, to Bloomberg News. "There are certain places where anarchists are more likely to inspire violence, and that's Greece." 

Two police officers have been charged in the shooting death of Grigoropoulos, who was buried on Tuesday.