The Latest: Greek police confirm 1 killed at migrant camp

By Associated Press 30 September 2019, 12:00AM

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — The Latest on migrants in Greece (all times local):

8:35 p.m.

Greek police say at least one person, and possibly a second, has died after migrants protesting at an overcrowded camp on the Greek island of Lesbos set fires and clashed with police.

Police announced that a burned body has been transferred to a local hospital and that there is information about a second, but that police have not yet been able to reach the location inside the camp. The protesters were demanding to be transferred to the Greek mainland.

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7:35 p.m.

Migrants protesting at a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos have set fires both inside and outside the camp, and have clashed with police.

Police and local authorities say there are unconfirmed reports of two fatalities at the Moria camp.

The protesters are demanding to be transferred to the Greek mainland.

Greek police spokesman Lt. Col. Theodoros Chronopoulos has told the Associated Press that the migrants set a blaze at an olive grove outside the camp just before 5 p.m. local (1400 GMT) and, minutes later, inside the camp. The mayor in Lesbos says both fires were later extinguished.

A police announcement says Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Lefteris Oikonomou, a former chief of the Greek police, is going to Lesbos.

About 12,000 migrants, most of them Afghans, are housed in a space designed for 3,000.

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11 a.m.

Greek police say a car carrying 12 migrants has run through a red light and crashed into a vehicle coming from a side street, killing its driver, a 64-year-old Greek man.

Police say one migrant was seriously injured and three others were slightly injured in the accident Sunday morning on the old Kavala-Thessaloniki road in northern Greece. Some of the migrants were found in the sedan's trunk.

The driver of the car carrying the migrants has been arrested. Police say he is a trafficker who was taking migrants west, toward the Greek city of Thessaloniki.

When asked by The Associated Press whether the trafficker's car was being pursued, a police spokesman said no. But other police sources said the car might have been monitored by authorities. All spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

By Associated Press 30 September 2019, 12:00AM

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