Anger as Roma teen shot by Greek police dies

A Roma teenager who was shot in the head by Greek police as he fled a petrol station last week, allegedly without paying, has died.

The 16-year-old was left in a critical condition after officers opened fire following a short chase in Greece’s second biggest city of Thessaloniki.

Doctors at the Hippocrates hospital said the boy died at 10:10 local time (08:10 GMT) on Tuesday.

The officer involved has been arrested and placed under investigation.

The shooting is the latest in a spate of similar incidents in Greece and has reignited a debate around police violence in the country.

In last week’s shooting, the teenager was accused of filling up his car with €20 (£17) of petrol, before fleeing from the station without paying.

CCTV released on Tuesday revealed that four policemen were inside the petrol station at the time.

The boy drove away chased by police on motorbikes and a 34-year-old officer said he opened fire after the teenager turned his vehicle towards them with the aim of ramming into them.

According to local media, the officer has been released under house arrest pending a judicial decision as to whether he should be held in custody.

He has already appeared in court accused of attempted homicide and other offences.

Civil Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos – who has responsibility for Greece’s security services – wrote on Twitter that he was “deeply saddened” by the boy’s death.

“The case is being investigated by the court, which is the only one competent to assess the facts and judge the responsibilities,” he added.

The incident sparked days of widespread protests among members of Greece’s Roma population.

The Roma is the country’s largest minority group, said to number some 270,000 people mostly living in makeshift accommodation.

Demonstrators in Thessaloniki burned tyres and rubbish bins in the west of the city before throwing petrol bombs at police, local media reported.

Protests also took place in several other cities, including in the capital Athens. On Friday, some demonstrators chanted: “It wasn’t the petrol, it wasn’t the money, the cops shot because he was Roma.”

Panagiotis Sabanis, head of the Roma Federation of Central and Western Macedonia, has called for “justice” for the killing.

“There is racism against us in Greece. It’s not the first incident of a police shooting against a Roma just because he is a Roma,” he said last week.