ATHENS – Unknown individuals on Friday attacked the home of an Afghan family, whose 11-year-old son Amir had been chosen by lot to be his school’s flag-bearer in the October 28 national holiday parade in the Dafni area. Under unspecified circumstances, the boy had eventually marched holding up a sign with the school’s name, instead of the Greek flag.

According to police, the attack occurred in the early hours of Friday, around 3:00 after midnight, when the unidentified perpetrators threw rocks through the windows and caused damage to the home occupied by the 11-year-old and his family.

The case is being investigated by the Hellenic Police Racist Violence Department.

According to the boy’s mother Arizu, the rocks were thrown into the bedroom shared by her children, filling the room with broken glass. Along with the stones and a beer bottle found on one of the beds, the family also found a cardboard sign telling them to go.

“I was shouting and calling for help. The children had woken up, crying; they were very afraid. The children’s room was full of glass. A beer bottle was on the bed. The stones kept coming, one after the other. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I notified the owner of the house, who came down and called the police. We are going to die. They will kill us and we don’t know the reason,” the boy’s mother told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

The family on Friday asked the Athens Municipality’s temporary refugee housing programme to move them to another home.

Education ministry officials, speaking to the ANA, said that the ministry was aware of the incident and working closely with theministry of citizen protection in this matter. In the meantime, there is an ongoing ministry investigation into the events that led to Amir holding the school sign instead of the flag during the Oct. 28 parade.

Athens Mayor George Kaminis, on his part, condemned the attack and asked for an immediate investigation, stressing that the municipality was determined to ensure an ‘open’ Athens where extremism, xenophobia and racism were relegated to the margins. This resolve would only be made stronger by fascist tactics seeking to terrorise, he added.

The home of the 11-year-old Afghan who has been chosen to be his school’s flag-bearer in the October 28 national holiday parade, Friday, Nov. 3, 2017. Eurokinissi