Greek students protest against police plan

ATHENS: Hundreds of Greek students on Thursday demonstrated in Athens and other cities over a plan to better police the country’s violence-prone universities.

"Cops out of campuses", read a banner in the Athens protest, where brief scuffles broke out with riot police who prevented the demonstrators from occupying the street. Protests were also held in Thessaloniki and Patras.

The ministries of education and police this week rolled out the plan to create a dedicated 1,000-strong force to patrol campuses. The officers will not carry firearms but will be equipped with batons and pepper spray, the police ministry said.

The operation of Greek universities has been disrupted for decades by clashes and violence against staff, often blamed on youth organisations affiliated with the country’s leading parties. "Things must change," government spokesman Christos Tarantilis, formerly a professor of management science, told reporters on Thursday.