Greek police arrest about 70 anti-mining protesters in Halkidiki

Protesters had just boarded a bus to leave when police stopped them and transferred them to the local police station, a police spokesman said.

According to the same official, protesters threw stones against policemen who responded with tear gas. The protesters, he said, lit up fires and police chased and immobilized them as they entered their bus.

On his side, the member of the Antiauthoritarian Movement, Argyris Mouratidis, who participated in the rally, told ANA-MPA that police forces were lined up in front of the company’s construction site and didn’t allow them to approach the company by throwing tear gas.

“They circled the protesters and then started chasing them, trapping a group which had boarded a bus,” he said.

The Regional council of Halkidiki and SYRIZA member Lazaros Toskas spoke to ANA-MPA of a “nasty attack of the riot police who chased protesters for two kilometers.”