Greece is facing a third day of protests against the shooting dead of a 15-year-old boy by a police officer on Saturday night. The alleged murder has caused two days of riots in cities across the country. From Athens, Malcolm Brabant has sent this report:

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If the demonstrations were spontaneous outpourings of anger to start with, they are now showing signs of being politically agitated by opposition parties keen to pile pressure on a very vulnerable government. The Greek communist party has called a mass rally in central Athens for later today, as has another party called the coalition of the left. The main socialist opposition party has urged Greeks to denounce the government, although the party's youth wing called for peaceful protests.

Most of the clashes have happened in university cities across Greece and have involved students. They have now been given the go-ahead to carry on by their tutors because the university professors have announced that they will stage a three day walkout from today.

Greece's interior minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has said that he understands people's anger, but he has condemned the violence for undermining social peace and targeting the property of innocent people.

The victim of the police shooting has been named as 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. One police officer has been charged with murder and another with being an accomplice.

Malcolm Brabant, BBC News, Athens

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show no sign of abating
don't seem likely to become less violent or end soon

spontaneous outpourings of
an uncontrollable expression of strong feelings that arises from natural impulse, not from planning or external influences

agitated
here, trying to arouse/win public support (for a certain cause or, as here, a political party)

to pile pressure on
to increase demands and/or forceful influences (in order to make someone do something)

to denounce
to criticise and/or accuse strongly and publicly

given the go-ahead
given the permission

carry on
continue

stage a three day walkout
go on a three day strike

undermining
here, destroying

an accomplice
someone who helps someone else to do something wrong (e.g. to commit a crime)

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