Riot police

Hundreds of police officers and special guards held a protest rally on Monday at the Sub-Directorate for Riot Police in Goudi, Athens, after the severe injury of their 31-year-old colleague last Thursday, with a request to not be responsible for guarding sports fields.

Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday, trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down French President Emmanuel Macron's government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase he's trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly.

Clashes broke out in Athens Thursday after a general strike in Greece that was called in response to a rail disaster last month.

Riot police officers in Thessaloniki, Greece. Photo: EPA-EFE/DIMITRIS TOSIDIS

According to the Greek media outlet Kathimerini, the seven persons, two lieutenant generals and five major generals, served in critical positions such as the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit and the Attica Security department, the Internal Affairs Service and the Police Intelligence Division.

Riot police were deployed in force on Nov. 27 in the Iranian city of Isfahan, a day after dozens were arrested in violent protests over the drying up of a lifeblood river.

Security forces fired tear gas during the clashes with stone-throwers in the protest in the dry bed of the Zayadneh Rood river that crosses the city, Fars and ISNA news agencies said.

A customer at a cafe in Istanbul, July 2020. Archive photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

It said that a total of 575 offenders have been detected and that detentions continue.

"Debates and developments on social media platforms as well as the social media accounts of illegal groups and structures are being followed closely," the ministry said in a written statement.

Riot police made limited use of tear gas on Friday after engaging in scuffles with protesters during a demonstration of around 60 people outside Athens University to express solidarity with jailed terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas, who has been on hunger strike for several weeks.

Twenty-one people were detained. 

The mayor of Agia Paraskevi, a district north of Athens, said on Thursday he was concerned that more than 1,000 people are planning to gather in the main square on Friday and over the weekend, despite a government ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.

Αuthorities are concerned about a trend involving large groups of young people gathering in squares with alcohol from bars and cafes offering takeaway services, with a square in Agia Paraskevi, north of Athens, being closed indefinitely after two nights of parties that culminated in clashes with police. 

February 2016: Four platoons of riot police are dispatched to Kos from Athens. Dozens of residents on the eastern Aegean island block the road leading to the village of Pyli with rocks and fires, as they oppose the construction of a migrant identification and reception center in the area. They clash with police, who use tear gas to disperse the protesters.