Suspected anarchist protests which have dogged Greece for the last week spread outside the country today, with mobs causing violent scenes in Italy, Spain, Russia, Denmark and Turkey.

Greek diplomatic missions were vandalised in the attacks, while police, local authority and media representatives were also targeted in what appeared a co-ordinated escalation.

The upsurge took place as protests continued in Greece following the killing last Saturday of Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

Today, mobs pelted 20 police stations with rocks and bottles, overturned cars and blocked streets in central Athens. Police responded with tear gas as sporadic violence persisted amid Greece’s worst rioting in decades.

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• Greek riots

Four people were detained and at least one man was hospitalised with injuries, authorities said. In a gesture which appeared designed to ease the violence, MPs held a minute of silence for Mr Grigoropoulos.

Yet what were originally relatively localised protests over the killing have since been hijacked by mobs of self-styled anarchists who authorities say are looking for trouble, and today they spread out of Greece for the first time.

In Denmark, a total of 32 people were arrested in Copenhagen after protests turned violent while, in Madrid and Barcelona, several police officers were injured and 11 people were arrested following clashes.

The violence also spread to Turkey, where a dozen protesters were reported to have painted the Turkish-flag red on the Greek consulate. In Moscow and Rome, meanwhile, petrol bombs were reported to have been aimed at Greek Embassies.

Meanwhile, a crew of television journalists from Russia were attacked by 50 youths as they filmed clashes in Exarchia, Greece, a known hotbed of student radicalism. One correspondent from the NTV television station was injured.

So far, hundreds of stores throughout Greece have been damaged or destroyed as gangs of masked youths and self-styled anarchists smashed windows with metal bars, looted stores and set up flaming street barricades in cities.

Greece’s conservative government has come under intense criticism for its handling of the crisis, despite authorities’ insistence that they avoided heavy handed policing to prevent bloodshed.

Costas Karamanlis, the Greek Prime Minister, whose government has a single-seat majority in parliament, has ignored growing opposition calls for early elections. However, he has promised shopkeepers affected by riots handouts of 10,000 Euros to cover short-term needs.

An opinion poll published yesterday showed that 68 per cent of Greeks disapproved of the government’s handling of the crisis, however. Even before the riots, the government was already facing public discontent over the state of the economy, the poor job prospects for students and a series of financial scandals.

"We demand accountability, that this government resigns, and that this farce comes to an end," Spyros Potamias, a 28-year-old architecture student said as he demonstrated at a polytechnic in Athens.

Store owners and most of the public expressed anger, however, that the police had not been firmer with the rioters as they embarked upon what appeared to be a rampage of destruction.

"I can accept anger, I cannot accept looting," said Michael Lavdiotis, manager of a looted Athens coffee shop, where food and even furniture was stolen. "They took everything ... we’re very frustrated. We didn’t deserve this behaviour."

Greece’s influential Orthodox Church has joined authorities in appealing for calm, as more student protests are believed to be planned for tomorrow.

"This tragedy cannot be resolved by burning and destroying the property of people who themselves have problems," said Church leader Archbishop Ieronymos.

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