ASTONISHING footage captures chaos in Athens where a group with Molotov cocktails transformed a section of the city into a battleground overnight, setting vehicles ablaze and engaging in fierce confrontations with riot police.
The tumult erupted shortly after midnight on Saturday when approximately 50 individuals launched petrol bombs, rocks, and fireworks at law enforcement outside a police precinct in Exarchia.
Police retaliated with tear gas and stun grenades, but the situation escalated, as fires blazed throughout Kallidromiou, Benaki, Charilaou Trikoupi, and Methonis streets.
Dramatic footage shows cars exploding in fireballs as thick black smoke choked the sky.
Stunned residents, meanwhile, watched the chaos unfold from windows.
A total of 21 cars were torched, with five completely destroyed, and a house and a shop were damaged.
The entrance and ground floor of an apartment building on Emmanuel Benaki Street caught fire and had to be evacuated.
Fire crews scrambled to contain the inferno, with 18 firefighters and seven engines tackling the blazes.
Garbage bins were also set alight and used as makeshift barricades as the mob battled police in running street fights that lasted over an hour.
Cops detained 72 people and reported one officer injured during the mayhem.
Reporters on the ground for Greek media said the explosion of unrest calmed as rapidly a it started – and was over by early on Sunday.
Cops suspect the riot – which began after crowds spilled out of a local concert hall and turned on a nearby police station – may be linked to ongoing fury over a 2023 train disaster.
Greece has been gripped with fury over the Tempi crash that saw a passenger train slam into a freight train killing 57 people.
Anger has boiled over regarding the crash – with the government accused of mismangement and a cover-up.
It has manifested in numerous angry protests and clashes with police – and a bomb attack on Friday night is also linked the the outrage.
“Incidents occurred on Saturday night in Exarchia where unknown persons attacked police forces,” Greek Police said.
“According to ELAS, the incidents began shortly before midnight when groups of unknown persons attacked police forces at the intersection of Kallidromiou and E. Benaki streets with Molotov cocktails and stones, with the police responding by using chemical weapons.”
Police are now investigating to identify the attackers, as scorched vehicles and charred debris litter the streets of Exarchia.
It comes just a couple of days after a bomb exploded in central Athens after authorities received a tip from an anonymous caller.
The blast took place outside the Hellenic Train offices – Greece‘s main railway company that was involved in the tragic 2023 rail disaster.
Footage showed a huge flash as a padlocked backpack, reportedly tied to a pillar and left on a bike without plates, detonated following a warning call from an anonymous tipster.
Local media said the caller warned at 8.53pm on Friday the bomb would explode in “30 to 40 minutes” and insisted “it is not a prank.”
Emergency crews cordoned off the area after residents reported a loud blast.
No injuries have been reported, but damage is still being assessed.
Christos Dimas, Greece’s Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, said: “The bomb attack that took place today at the offices of Hellenic Train is an absolutely condemnable act.
“This is a criminal act, which endangered the lives of people, employees and passers-by, in a central point of Athens and during peak traffic hours.
“Nothing justifies terrorism, no act of violence brings justice.”
The explosion comes amid ongoing anger over the 2023 rail tragedy, which saw two trains collide head-on after being mistakenly put on the same track.
The crash, which killed dozens and left 66 injured, including children, was blamed on human error, poor maintenance and staffing shortages.
A trial date has yet to be announced.
