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ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greek authorities braced for the more violence Tuesday with the funeral planned for a teenager whose shooting by police led to the worst rioting the country has seen in decades.
Three successive nights of widespread burning and looting have left stores and buildings gutted across Athens, and serious damage in Greece's other main cities. The widely televised scenes of destruction are likely to further undermine a conservative government already rocked by financial scandals and clinging to a razor-thin majority of just one seat in the 300-member Parliament.
As storeowners swept up glass and took stock of their looted shops, criticism mounted of the police response during the riots and their inability to stop the wanton destruction of businesses, hotels, banks and cars.
Although riot police fired volleys of tear gas when rioters attacked them with rocks and Molotov cocktails, fighting running battles with masked youths throughout the night, they took a back seat when rioters smashed windows and torched stores.
"Athens was at the mercy of flames and the uncontrolled action of hooded youths for a third consecutive night, ... displaying a power vacuum and the inability of the state to ensure order," said the conservative broadsheet Kathimerini in its front-page story.
But Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos late Monday praised the police response, saying authorities successfully protected human life.
Government officials were not immediately available to give an assessment of Monday night's damage across the country or of how many people were injured.
Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis said that in Athens alone, 1,000 trash bins were set alight, most used as burning street barricades.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said there would be no leniency for the rioters.
"No one has the right to use this tragic incident as an alibi for actions of raw violence, for actions against innocent people, their property and society as a whole, and against democracy," he said after an emergency meeting with the country's president, Karolos Papoulias.
Rioting began Saturday night after the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, who was shot by police in the often-volatile Exarchia district.
Grigoropoulos' funeral is to be held in a seaside suburb of Athens Tuesday afternoon. Schools and universities across Greece will remain closed and more public demonstrations are planned.
Two police officers have been arrested and charged, one with murder and the other as an accomplice.
Within hours of the boy's death, riots erupted in cities across Greece, from Thessaloniki in the north to cities in Crete and the holiday island of Corfu. By early Tuesday, hundreds of stores, cars, banks and buildings in about a dozen cities had been torched, smashed or looted.
The worst violence occurred late Monday when gangs of masked and hooded youths screaming "Cops! Pigs! Murderers!" set up burning barricades across city streets and fought pitched street battles with riot police firing volleys of tear gas.
The city's Christmas tree in central Syntagma Square also went up in flames.
"These people respect nothing, look what they have destroyed," said Mayor Kaklamanis. "These people cannot be considered Greeks."
He said Christmas celebrations would take place as planned because he did not want to give the rioters the satisfaction of seeing them canceled.
Police announced 89 arrests late Monday, while more than 100 other people were detained for questioning. Twelve police officers were injured; authorities did not have figures for civilian injuries.
Karamanlis was due to meet opposition party leaders later Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
"This country does not have a government," Socialist opposition leader George Papandreou said. "This chaos ... is a result of the decisions and omissions made by a government that has become dangerous for the Greek people."
