You're reading: Greece: Rioting at migrant detention center

 THESSALONIKI, Greece — Scores of suspected illegal immigrants staged a revolt at a detention center in northeastern Greece Friday, setting fires and wielding metal bars, causing extensive damage and leaving at least 16 people injured. 

Authorities said riot police clashed with the detainees and used tear gas, after the rioters set fire to mattresses and dismantled metal bed frames to use to use as weapons.

The incident occurred at Komotini, 820 kilometers (510 miles) northeast of Athens, where about 550 suspected illegal immigrants — mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and facing deportation — are being held.

It was the worst immigrant-related violence since the government launched a crackdown this summer involving roundups in Greek cities.

Police said at least 12 immigrants were injured, along with four police officers.

“Things are quiet now. But the place looks like it’s been bombed,” Stavroula Tzatzana, head of the police officers’ association in the northeastern Rodopi region, told The Associated Press.

“There’s been extensive damage. Windows have been smashed, mattresses burned, and all kinds of property damaged.”

She said according to information she had on two of the injured officers, one man had a flesh wound on the head, while the other had been hit in the leg and needed stitches.

Police said more than 40 detainees were arrested over the revolt.

A similar incident occurred at an immigrant detention facility in the southern city of Corinth on Sunday.

About 4,000 immigrants have been detained for deportation since the police campaign started in August, out of some 50,000 people questioned or briefly held for document checks, according to the police.

The crackdown by the conservative-led government has led to a dramatic drop in the number of people trying to cross into the country illegally.

Opened in September, the Komotini site, was created on the grounds of a police academy, which is still operating.

Tzatzana said her association had repeatedly warned the government that the detention center was poorly guarded.

“There have been other, smaller, revolts at the center. But this one was serious,” she said.

“For each shift, there are 15 police officers available to guard 550 people. That is obviously not enough. We have repeatedly warned that the conditions are inappropriate. Now it is clear these conditions are putting the lives of my colleagues at risk.”

Greece is the European Union’s busiest transit point for illegal immigration.

The European Union’s Home Affairs Commissioner, Cecilia Malstrom, visited the Komotini site last month.