The 16-year-old was shot in the head early on Monday morning after driving a truck away from a petrol station near the port city of Thessaloniki without paying, state TV ERT said.

The Greek police department said the youth had tried to ram officers in pursuit on motorbikes in his attempt to evade arrest.

Members of the teenager's family gathered outside the hospital where he is receiving treatment and threw rocks at riot police, who fired tear gas.

The officer who fired the shot was arrested and will appear before a prosecutor on Tuesday.

Another Roma youth was killed in 2021 near the port of Piraeus, also in a police pursuit.

The incident also comes a day ahead of youth protests in several cities to mark the 2008 death of a Greek teenager, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, who was also fatally shot by a police officer.

His death sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests in Greece.