NEWS

Roma riot after arrest in Fyli

Police maintained a discreet presence in Fyli, northwestern Athens, on Tuesday after a crowd of nearly 200 members of a local Roma settlement attacked a city bus carrying passengers on Monday night, sparking riots that led to the injury of six police officers.

Roma protesters attacked the bus with stones, sticks and iron bars, frightening the driver and passengers, but causing them no harm. During the rioting, the bus was torched, local shops looted and garbage bins set on fire.

The riots followed the arrest of a Roma man implicated in the accidental death of a 28-year-old member of the police?s motorcycle-riding DIAS force early on Sunday in a car crash. The mayor of Fyli, Dimitris Bouraimis, told Kathimerini that the decision to scale up the local police presence over the past two days was taken to avert a possible attempt by the extreme-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) party to exploit the accidental death of the policeman to justify possible attacks against members of the local Roma community.

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