Police and city employees Saturday cleared anti-government protestors known as “indignants” from the central Athens square they had occupied for more than two months, an AFP reporter witnessed. “Various objects that polluted and downgraded the environment were removed from the wider area of the square using more than 25 trucks” the police said in a press release.
There was minor tension during the five-hour operation in Syntagma Square, the scene of sometimes violent demonstrations against Greece’s parlous economic situation in recent weeks, that began at 4am (0100 GMT). Police said they had arrested eight individuals — four Greeks, two French, one German and one Romanian — who are “accused of violating laws regarding the protection of the environment.”
