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Athens: An Australian man beaten up outside a nightclub on the Greek island of Mykonos has been declared brain dead by doctors, his father said on Thursday.
The attack heightened alarm in Greece over rising crime at its tourist resorts, which provide nearly a fifth of the country's economy.
Police detained four nightclub employees after the attack early on Tuesday on the 20-year-old man, identified by police as Doujon Zammit from Sydney.
"The doctors have said he is brain dead," the victim's father, Oliver Zammit, said outside an Athens hospital. "Maybe tomorrow we will have to turn off the life support and just take him home."
Tourism Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos convened an emergency meeting yesterday with representatives of other ministries to devise a response to the spate of violence plaguing the sector.
Greece's opposition Socialist party said the government had not given police in Mykonos the resources to tackle the problem. "Why isn't the government doing anything to reinforce public order and citizens' safety?" it asked in a statement.
One Greek man has been charged with grievous bodily harm and possession of an illegal weapon after allegedly beating Zammit with a metal baton, according to police officials.
The man, a nightclub car park attendant, told police he believed Zammit had stolen a handbag, they said.
Tourists' bad press
The attack followed the arrest last week of a 20-year-old British woman on the island of Crete, charged with strangling to death her newborn baby in a hotel room.
A few days later, a 17-year-old Briton died outside a bar in Zakynthos. A local coroner's report blamed heavy drinking.
Greece welcomes 15 million tourists each year, nearly a fifth of them British. Many coastal resorts have become notorious for the violent and indecent behaviour of drunken holidaymakers.
Britain's Foreign Office said there were 48 rapes reported in Greece last year - the highest of any holiday destination - most of them allegedly perpetrated by Britons against fellow holidaymakers.
Last year, hundreds of residents of the Cretan resort of Malia staged a march against young British tourists.
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