Greek hospitals, university hit in student server shutdown

Several Greek hospitals and one of the country's main universities have suffered an Internet blackout after students shut down a central server to thwart board elections, an official said on Tuesday.

Athanassios Dimopoulos, head of the Athens Medical School, said the blackout had disrupted operations in at least four Athens hospitals and had completely crippled electronic communications at Athens University.

"There is a significant obstruction to education and research procedure at Athens University," Dimopoulos said in a statement.

"In addition, several hospitals are connected through the university network," Dimopoulos said, adding that the shutdown was impeding the release of prescriptions and medical test results.

A group of students on Monday broke into the university's central server facilities and occupied the premises in order to prevent an online vote for the institution's new board of governors.

The operation of Greek universities is routinely disrupted by student protests instigated by the youth wings of the main political parties.

Over the past six years, left-leaning student groups have held protests and sit-ins to prevent a raft of government reforms.

These include efforts to streamline the curriculum, cut costs and enable the police to enter campuses, a controversial measure in a country with memories of a brutal dictatorship that ended less than four decades ago still vivid.