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Athens beefs up security for cup final

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek authorities have announced a city lockdown as part of heavy security measures for Saturday's Cup final between Panathinaikos and PAOK Salonica at the Olympic Stadium. Over 4,000 police officers will on duty for the match following the unsavoury scenes during the April 16 semi-final in which PAOK defeated Olympiakos Piraeus. The match was delayed by over an hour due to thousands of flares causing smoke while a bucket of fish was also dumped onto the visitors' dugout. Mass gatherings have been banned in central Athens from 6 am to 8 pm on the day of the game and heavy escorts would be provided to the PAOK fans coming from the northern city of Thessaloniki "for reasons of public order and safety and in order not to disrupt social and economic life", according to a police statement. The stringent measures have prompted criticism from PAOK, who said in a club statement that they had made every effort to get the police to change their decision but came up against a "counterpart with no desire to cooperate". (Reporting by Graham Wood; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)