The coroner that carried out the autopsy on the body of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on Monday has confirmed that his death was the result of being shot in the chest by a fire-arm.

   Completing his examination in the presence of an expert representing the boy's family, coroner Christos Lefkidis said the boy had been hit in the chest by a bullet from a small-calibre fire-arm, which had gone through his heart and lodged in his 10th vertebrae.

   The bullet was removed and given to the police forensics service for a ballistics investigation.

   The coroner did not specify whether the bullet that killed the boy had hit him directly or as a result of a ricochet, saying that this would be answered by the ballistics report that would be released later on Monday or by Tuesday at the latest.

   Grigoropoulos was killed when a police officer opened fire following an altercation with a group of youths in the Athens district of Exarhia.