16-year-old Roma boy dies after Greek police shooting

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - A teenage boy from Greece’s Roma community died on Tuesday, a week after a police officer shot him in the head while chasing him over an alleged unpaid petrol station bill.

The 16-year-old boy had been battling for his life in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Ippokratio Hospital in northern Thessaloniki.

"He was rushed to surgery and then to the hospital's ICU in a very critical condition and had received the best possible mechanical and pharmaceutical support. Today, despite the tireless efforts of the medical and nursing staff he died. We express our sincere condolences to his family and his friends," the hospital said.

Following the announcement, security has been tightened outside Roma camps across the country, the state-run Athens-Macedonian news agency said.

The Roma community has condemned the incident as having racist motives. “There is racism against us in Greece,” said Panagiotis Sabanis, the head of the Roma Federation of Central and Western Macedonia.

The shooting led to days of often violent protests in various parts of the country in which several police officers were injured.