Attacks fuel racial tensions
Two attacks on Afghan immigrants in the district of Aghios Panteleimonas, near central Athens, in the past 48 hours suggest a rise in tensions between the neighborhood’s Greek community and its burgeoning immigrant population. Three Afghan men – aged 18, 22 and 23 – faced an Athens prosecutor yesterday charged with attacking and injuring two Greek men and an Albanian minor on Wednesday night. According to police, a group of six Afghan men attacked the 13-year-old Albanian at Aghios Panteleimonas Square on Wednesday. The two Greek men stepped in to help the youth and were in turn stabbed with broken bottles and a knife. In a related development, unidentified assailants firebombed a cafe owned by an Afghan man early yesterday, causing damage but no injuries. The attacks come after a vicious attack in the same area against an Afghan aid worker on Saturday by a group 20 assailants wielding crowbars.
