Greek police run out of tear gas as rioting continues for a seventh day
Thousands of Greek protesters clashed with riot police yet again in Athens today, as police started to run out of tear gas after battling rioters day and night for a whole week.
Police sources said their riot squads had fired 4,600 tear gas canisters this week as rioters torched hundreds of banks and shops and occupied their campuses, where police after forbidden by law from entering.
The police have asked Israel and Germany to send them emergency supplies, while protesters claimed that they had been using old stock from the 1980s in a desperate bid to contain the rioting. They claimed that corroded chemicals were causing some demonstrators to collapse and need medical attention.
?We found tear gas canister dated from 1981,? said one demonstrator, calling himself only GK. ?The old chemicals make us sick, people have fainted and have trouble breathing,? he said.
