A Greek 15-year-old boy whose fatal shooting by police sparked unprecedented demonstrations and violence around the country will be laid to rest on Tuesday, a police source said.

The funeral of Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was fatally shot by a police officer on Saturday, will be held at the municipal cemetery of Palio Faliro, a residential southern Athens suburb, at 1pm GMT.

His death triggered three days of demonstrations and riots in Athens, Salonika and other major Greek cities that saw scores of banks and shops put to flame and looted, and several police stations attacked with stones and Molotov cocktails.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis vowed to end the unrest and the government defended the response of security forces to the incidents, but the authorities are facing a storm of criticism for failing to stem the violence.

AFP