ATHENS – Two days after a Greek special police officer pulled a gun after authorities said a group tried to assault him at a Greek university, police were called there again when some 70 hooded attackers went after riot police.

The trouble happened at the beleaguered Athens University of Economics and Business in central Athens when officials said stones, sticks and other objects were thrown at police who have been cracking down on violence and lawlessness.

The group, in an area dominated by anarchists, then ran away and set up barricades with chairs and garbage bins outside the university, disrupting traffic on both directions of the main Patision Avenue, said Kathimerini.
Police went into the university grounds, now allowed after the ruling New Democracy lifted asylum for universities, and detained five people, the paper said, before reopening the major thoroughfare to traffic.

A day before, Two students accused of tangling with riot police on the grounds of the college during November, 2019 protests were cleared of the charges by a three-member misdemeanors court.

The judges adopted the prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled unanimously that there was no evidence the two accused had taken part in the battle, said Kathimerini in a report on the aftermath of what had been a violent encounter.

The students at the time were protesting a decision by school officials to close the university for a week in their own protest against criminal elements on the grounds and surrounding areas, pressing police and the government to step in.