VIDEO: Greece Appeals For Calm After Riots

The youths smashed shop windows and set fire to refuse containers after the shooting.

Greece's conservative government appealed for calm on Sunday after the country's worst riots in years shook several cities, sparked by the shooting of a teenage boy by police in Athens.

The protests began in the capital late on Saturday soon after the boy was killed, with youths throwing petrol bombs at riot police, smashing shop windows and burning several cars. They quickly spread elsewhere, including Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, and the holiday islands of Crete and Corfu.

Athens was peaceful on Sunday, though barricades erected by protesters and charred vehicles remained on some streets, while broken bottles and rocks littered the main avenues.

Left-wing groups called for protests later on Sunday in the capital.

"Regarding the planned demonstrations, everyone has the right to protest but not by destroying property or turning against innocent people," Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos told a news conference, defending the police's track record.

"No rage, even if justified, must lead to protests like those we saw yesterday. Such actions are against human rights."

Pavlopoulos said he offered to resign but this was rejected by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose fragile government has lost three ministers to scandals in the last year.

Fire services said they tackled blazes in 16 banks, about 20 shops and more than a dozen cars in Athens alone. Police officials declined to give figures for the number of people arrested or injured.

ARRESTS

"It is the first time in my life that I see the city ravaged in this way. The government is to blame," said Ioannis Damascos, 59, surveying the damage in central Athens, where passersby used handkerchiefs to hide the smell of lingering tear gas.

Two police officers had been arrested in connection with the shooting of the 15-year-old boy and Pavlopoulos said the findings of a preliminary investigation would be announced on Monday.

A police statement said one of the officers fired three shots after their patrol car was attacked by a group of 30 youths in Athens' volatile Exarchia neighbourhood.

Witnesses told Greek TV he fired directly at the boy but a police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters the officer said he fired warning shots.

A police spokesman said it was the first time since 1985 that police had killed a minor in Greece. That killing sparked months of almost daily clashes between police and protesters.

Greece has seen a wave of anti-government strikes and protests in recent months as the global economic crisis has started to bite. A 24-hour strike is scheduled for Wednesday to protest privatisations, pension reform and the cost of living in a country where one in five live below the poverty line.

"I am upset, very upset ... why did they have to kill that boy? said a 65-year-old pensioner who identified himself as Giorgos. "People are angry but is this the only thing we can do to defend ourselves from becoming poor?"

Anger among Greek youths, who traditionally lean to the left, has increased as the gap between rich and poor has widened in recent years. Street violence at protest rallies and fire bomb attacks by anarchist groups are common.

The Socialist opposition has taken the lead in opinion polls amid anger at public scandals and the government's handling of the economy. Many analysts say Karamanlis could be forced to call an early election next year.