Dangerous escalation of incidents in Keratea

Keratea was once again transformed into a battlefield, with violent clashes between police forces and residents who are against the building of a sanitary landfill in their area.

During the night, a couple of police officers and their 4 children were attacked by strangers at their house. The family lives in the area of ​​Keratea and shortly after midnight they were attacked with Molotov cocktails.

Early at noon on Thursday, local residents tried to prevent police officers from closing the 2-meter-deep trench that strangers dug right under the Police’ nose…

The arrival of police officers at noon immediately alerted the city and people gathered on the bridge above the trench and attacked the officers with Molotov cocktails, stones and sticks. The riot police used chemicals and pushed them back behind the city stadium.

A little while later there were harsh confrontations between police and residents with stones, wood, Molotov cocktails, flares, smoke bombs and a lot of tear gas, while a police helicopter was supporting the operation from above.

Several people were injured from the violent clashes along with two policemen who were transported to the 401 Military Hospital, while there were also some fainting episodes due to the use of chemicals and tear gas.

Early in the evening, however, workers were able to restore the roadway, but confrontations between police and residents continued inside the city.

In fact, a prosecutor visited the area, after ther mandate of the head of the First Instance Court of Prosecutors, Eleni Raikou.

The protests and strong reactions of the locals opposing the construction of a sanitary landfill in the region, have brought the situation to a critical state, with the Lavreotiki municipal authority indicating their ignorance about the trench incident.

Specifically, deputy mayor Vasilis Thivaios notes that he was informed of the incident by this morning’s 8.30 news when he left his house and adds, "I heard about it from the kiosk in my neighborhood."

He is also complaining that "At approximately the same time, I received a threatening phone call from a stranger. 'You destroyed me, you burned my car. I will take revenge', were among the many threats I received," he says, and continues: "The situation has gotten out of hand, it’s getting more and more exacerbated and we, as an Authority, cannot control it. We fear the worst. At last, the State must adopt a responsible position and reply to our proposal for an integrated waste management system".

He also said that "this Friday, a delegation of the Municipal Authority with the participation of the Reverend of Mesogaia – Lavreotiki, will visit the police officer hospitalized at the 401 Military Hospital, and then with the presence of union reps form the Hellenic Police, will meet with Civil Protection minister, Christos Papoutsis, in an attempt to disengage the police from this "political issue".

According to Thivaios, the Municipal Authority is also willing to meet with the ministers of Interior and Environment, Giannis Ragousis and Tina Birbili.