A city official says the mayor of Thessaloniki has been hospitalised with head, back and leg injuries after being beaten upon by nationalist extremists.
Thessaloniki City Council President Calypso Goula said Mayor Yiannis Boutaris was attending a flag-lowering ceremony Saturday in commemoration of the Greek Pontic Genocide, the killing of ethnic Greeks by the Turks during World War I and the subsequent Greek-Turkish war.
Goula, who also was there, says about a dozen people approached the 75-year-old Boutaris and told him to leave the event, then attacked him with bottles. The mayor is known for his strong anti-nationalist stance.
Goula says Boutaris fell down and was kicked in the head and legs.
Representatives of Pontic Greek organisations say during a church service earlier commemorating the victims, attending politicians were booed.
