Two professors were hospitalized yesterday after a group of some 20 suspected anarchists burst into a students’ session in the pedagogical faculty of Athens University brandishing iron bars and other weapons.

The director of the school, Yiannis Papadatos, and female professor Maria Tzani were taken to hospital after reportedly being beaten by some of the youths. The extent of their injuries was not clear yesterday.

The rioting youths trashed the auditorium, in which some 200 students from a union affiliated with ruling New Democracy had been gathered, witnesses said. They then fled and – as it appears – managed to elude police.

The incident followed a similar one on Tuesday when suspected anarchists burst into the Athens Law School where students were in session yesterday and ran amok with clubs and hammers, breaking windows and causing other damage.

After yesterday’s incident, university staff said they had had enough. “These incidents provoke sadness, anger and disappointment and are to be condemned wherever they occur,” a statement for the Pedagogical Department said. “Such repeated acts of crime and violence within university premises should concern us all as they cannot be coincidental and are probably aimed at fueling greater tension and violence,” the statement added.

The statement did not clarify who was suspected of fueling the violence. But it is thought most likely that the assailants were not students affiliated with left-wing unions, who often clash with their ND counterparts, but self-styled anarchists.

The university senate said it would call an emergency session to discuss the escalation of violence on campus.