Athens - Greeks were expected to take to the streets in all corners of the country Sunday following overnight riots triggered by the death of a teenaged boy shot earlier by police. Riots raged in the Greek capital Athens throughout the night and spread to the northern port city of Thessaloniki, the western port city of Patras, the central cities of Ioannina and Volos and also to the southern Mediterranean island of Crete.
In the capital Athens, hundreds of riots destroyed dozens of shops, banks and cars in along the city's most important commercial street Ermou.
Downtown Athens had turned into a battlefield as thick black smoke and broken glass could be seen from burning cars and garbage bins.
Police first used tear gas to disperse the crowd of youths. Restaurants and bars, normally full of clients on a Saturday night, shut their doors early.
The rioting began in Athens late on Saturday shortly after the shooting in the central district of Exarchia, after groups of youths began attacking a police car with stones and firebombs.
One of the officers inside the police vehicle retaliated by firing warning shots, one of which seriously wounded the teenager in the stomach. The teenager died upon arrive at hospital.
Witnesses, however, claim that there was only a verbal exchange between the youths and police, and that a policeman shot directly into the group.
The unrest quickly spread to other cities and towns across the country where protest marches were scheduled to take place on Sunday.
Hundreds of riot police were preparing for possible unrest in Athens where citizens, unions and students were expected to march to protest the killing from the Polytechic University, the setting of the 1973 student uprising against the junta to parliament.
"It was cold-blooded murder," an eyewitness told a radio broadcaster.
Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos offered his resignation to the prime minister. The offer was rejected.
The interior minister said "an investigation to clarify the situation has already began and all those involved will be punished so that such a thing does not happen again."
Two police officers have been arrested in the incident and were being questioned just as dozens of people staged a march outside the police headquarters where they were taken.
The shooting has been described by the media as one of the worst civilian casualties inflicted by police in over a decade and the first time since 1985 that police have killed a minor in Greece.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis conservative government has faced a series of protests from workers groups and students over the past few months.
Reports said the prime minister, whose government rules with a slim majority, may be forced to call early elections.
