Local authority representatives yesterday condemned police for arresting the mayor and the head of a local council in western Athens after they oversaw the removal of an allegedly illegal mobile telephony mast in the area.

Kamatero Mayor Nikolaos Stenos and the president of the municipal council, Nikitas Kamarinopoulos, were taken into police custody on Sunday afternoon and released yesterday morning.

A statement from the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities of Greece (KEDKE) said the two men were arrested after the council decided to disconnect the mast that, officials say, was unlawfully drawing power from the electricity grid and was illegally erected on a four-story building which was being constructed near three schools. Stenos and Kamarinopoulos accompanied municipal engineers to the site on Sunday to take the mast down.

KEDKE said it would ask for a meeting with the government to discuss a framework for the safe installation of similar masts in the future.