A high-school students’ demonstration here last week to protest an alleged neo-Nazi attack on a teen-age girl erupted into a rampage by youths who had no connection with the protest.
The marauding youths threw firebombs, smashed bank and shop windows and damaged cars in the center of the Greek capital.
After the vandals set a fire engine ablaze with Molotov cocktails, they hurled rocks and other objects at police and firefighters who tried to extinguish the blaze.
The violence brought traffic to a halt in the center of Athens.
Police said they had arrested two people in connection with the violent demonstration and were questioning them to determine whether other people had been involved.
The march had been called to protest an alleged attack said to have taken place last week against a 16-year-old schoolgirl.
The girl told police that four youths had pinned her down while a fifth etched a swastika on her forehead with a knife.
But a forensic surgeon cast doubt on her story, saying that the swastika had been etched not by a knife but by an object such as a needle or safety pin. He said the symbol was “fashioned with great precision” and that the girl must have been completely immobile while it was done.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
