Police shooting sparks Greece riots

Greece's interior minister has appealed for calm in the wake of widespread rioting after police shot dead a 15-year-old boy in Athens.

Police said the teenager was shot in the traditionally left-wing Exarchia district of the Greek capital on Saturday after the boy tried to throw a firebomb at a patrol car.

Rioting quickly spread outside the capital to other areas, including Greece's second city Thessaloniki and the holiday islands of Crete and Corfu.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the Greek interior minister, said: "Regarding the planned demonstrations, everyone has the right to protest but not by destroying property or turning against innocent people."

He denounced the violence as "against human rights" and defended the police response saying that "no rage, even justified, must lead to protests like those we saw yesterday [Saturday]".

Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Athens, said local "people are shocked by the extent and ferocity of the violence".

He said that the political fallout from the rioting would become clear in the coming days.

Resignation

Pavlopoulos said he had offered his resignation but it had been rejected by Costas Karamanlis, the Greek  prime minister.