A rally organized to protest the opening of a local branch of the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party in Agrinio, Western Greece, on Sunday evening ended with riot squads being dispatched from Athens and other parts of the country after a group of protesters clashed with local police in front of the town’s central Aghios Dimitrios Church.

Police fired tear gas and stun grenades at some 200 protesters who reacted violently to the inauguration of a local branch of Golden Dawn in the city, in a ceremony that was attended by party officials as well as by numerous supporters from other parts of the country.

Earlier in the day, Golden Dawn’s offices in Karditsa and Xanthi in northern Greece were vandalized by unknown assailants. Source: Kathimerini