The already tense situation on the island of Chios went completely out of control on Wednesday when a group of angry locals raided a hotel where riot policemen from Athens are accommodated. They first entered the rooms that were empty and threw away from windows and balconies everything they found inside: clothes, personal items even underwear.
But their range was not satisfied. They raided rooms where police officers were resting and beat them.
The video from local Alitheia TV shows a group of young and elderly men entering a room and starting beating the police officers. Somebody tries to prevent the worse by shouting “No! No! Let’s go away!” As the group continues the beating, the man shouts “Enough! Enough! Let’s go out! They are humans!”
Prior to the beating, a riot policeman came to the balcony and threw a tear gas canister to the crowd of protesters outside, with the effect that the situation escalated, local news website astraparis reports.
A total of six police offers were slightly injured, local media reported, later police added 3 more.
Police detained 12 people for the raid.
Odd enough and despite the tension on the island, no high-ranking officer had thought to safeguard the hotel. huge mistake, if you ask me.
Earlier, a group of protesters isolated a few police officers in the area and reportedly clashed with them.
Another group of locals surrounded a second hotel but reportedly refrained from creating ugly scenes as in the hotel in Karfas seaside resort.
Residents are in uproar due to the creation of the new closed migration centers as well as the excessive use of violence against them by dozens of riot policemen from Athens, assigned to keep them away from blocking the construction sites.
On the day of the general strike authorities on Chios have called for a second protest at the site later in the afternoon.
Local media accuse the police of “deviating behavior.”
Meanwhile on the neighboring island of Lesvos, a total of 46 riot policemen and 10 residents have been injured during the ongoing clashes.
Policemen are reportedly injured from stones, locals from tear gas and beating.
After two days of ongoing clashes, between locals and riot police on Lesvos or Chios, after tons of tear gas, outrage and unprecedented situations like the beating of policemen, Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for diffusing the tension – or something…
PS And here we are: divide a nation, have Greeks go against Greeks. A practice many elderly still recall from the recent history.
