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Protesters have set fire to a major department store in central Athens and torched the city's giant Christmas tree outside parliament as anti-government demonstrations continued over the shooting of a 15-year-old boy.
Thousands of protesters smashed the windows of banks, businesses and government ministries, and set fire to rubbish containers, filling the air with acrid smoke, in a third day of action over Saturday's death.
Small groups of youths continued to occupy university campuses in the centre of the capital, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at police.
Police said that dozens of officers had been injured in Athens since the violence began.
Earlier, hundreds of students clashed with police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.
Around 300 people threw fire bombs at riot police and attacked cars and shops as demonstrations spilled over into violence for a third consecutive day.
Two people were detained as police used tear gas against the rioters.
Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Athens, said the government and the police appeared to have been caught "on the backfoot" by the violence.
"The centre-right government was already in trouble and is clinging on to power with a very small majority.
"Ministers have been on TV apologizing for the death of the boy as much as condemning the widespread looting and violence which is indicative of how the government is on the backfoot," he said.
Phillips also said recent political history made it difficult for the police to tackle the rioters.
"Since the overthrow of the military junta in the 1970s, Greek public opinion simply just doesn't tolerate a strong, authoritarian display of force. To some extent, the Greek police always have their hands tied," he said.
Communist rally
The socialist Pasok opposition party called on Greeks to denounce the government on Monday, but refrain from any further violence, ahead of a mass rally in central Athens organized by the Greek communist party.
"We must answer the government's policies en masse and peacefully," the youth branch of Pasok said in a statement.
University professors, who had planned to join a nationwide strike against pension reforms and economic policies on Wednesday, said they would now stage a three-day walkout starting on Monday.
Internet blogs popular with high school students urged them to stay away from class.
Thousands of rioters fought running battles with police in cities across the country over the weekend, leaving dozens injured, destroying businesses and piling more pressure on the embattled conservative government.
Overnight, protesters chanted "cops, pigs, murderers" and rained petrol bombs down on riot police, while helicopters hovered overhead and officers used tear gas.
In addition to Athens and Thessaloniki, violence also erupted in Hania, Crete and across other cities in northern Greece.
Officers charged
The wave of violent protests was triggered by the police shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the traditionally left-wing Exarchia district on Athens on Saturday.
Two officers have been charged over the shooting - one with premeditated manslaughter and the illegal use of a weapon and the other as an accomplice.
The are due to appear before a court on Wednesday and both have been suspended - along with the Exarchia precinct police chief.
A police statement said that one of the officers had fired three shots after their car was attacked by around 30 youths.
Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the Greek interior minister, has promised a full investigation into the shooting.
"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child," he said.
The political fallout from the riots will become clear in the coming days
"The taking of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy."
However, earlier on Sunday the interior minister denounced the violence as "against human rights" and defended the police response, saying "no rage, even justified, must lead to protests like those we saw [on Saturday]".
Pavlopoulos's offer to resign was rejected on Sunday by Costas Karamanlis, the Greek prime minister.
Karamanlis's embattled government has lost three ministers amid corruption scandals in the last 12 months.
PHOTO CAPTION
Map locating violent protests in Greece.
Al-Jazeera
