Protest follows claim that police tore paper with religious verses

   

   

    Roughly 1,500 protesters, reportedly Muslim guest workers and immigrants, demonstrated in front of Parliament in downtown Athens on Friday afternoon in the wake of an Iraqi man's claims that a police officer tore a piece of paper he was carrying featuring religious verses in Arabic.

   

    Protesters at first threw objects at riot police, while several bus stops were damaged on the route of the protest, with police responding with tear gas and "flash-bang" grenades.

   

    The Iraqi man's allegation a day earlier -- which allegedly occurred during a routine check in a central Athens neighbourhood hosting a large number of foreign nationals -- generated an initial impromptu protest outside a police station in the Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas. The inflammatory claim was apparently spread by word of mouth in the same urban district within hours. A later announcement by police headquarters said the incident will be thoroughly investigated.

   

    Οne man was arrested in central Athens late Thursday evening following the rally by several hundred people outside the precinct, with demonstrators mostly identified as Afghan nationals.

   

    The suspect, a Syrian national (previously identified as an Afghan), was arrested after allegedly throwing a firebomb near the Aghios Panteleimonas police station, which is based in a neighbourhood that has recently garnered heightened local media coverage due to increased crime and local residents' charges of the presence of criminal gangs comprised of illegal immigrants and economic migrants.

   

    Another five arrests, apparently unrelated, were reported overnight in the same vicinity involving foreign nationals.