Greek police clashed with protesters on Wednesday as around 100,000 workers, pensioners and students marched to parliament in protest at austerity policies aimed at helping Greece cope with a huge debt crisis.
4:04PM GMT 23 Feb 2011
Riot police fired tear gas and flash bombs at protesters hurling petrol bombs, stones and bottles in the main Syndagma square in Athens.
A 24-hour strike by public and private sector employees grounded flights, shut down schools and paralysed public transport in this year's first nationwide walkout against cuts.
In the biggest march since the December 2008 riots brought the country to a standstill for weeks, about 100,000 Greeks marched through the streets of Athens.
Shops barricaded their windows and hotels in central Athens locked up.
Police said two policemen and five civilians were injured, including one journalist hurt by a petrol bomb. Four protesters were detained.
Protesters broke marble sidewalks for rocks to throw at police, set garbage cans on fire and damaged bus stops. Others unfolded a black banner reading "We are dying" in front of parliament.
"We've reached our limits! We can't make ends meet," said 60-year old Yannis Tsourounakis, who has three children and is unemployed. "Our future is a nightmare if we don't overturn these policies."
The Socialist government cut salaries and pensions and raised taxes last year despite repeated strikes, in return for a 110 billion euro (£93 billion) bail-out by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that saved Greece from bankruptcy.
Greece's international lenders approved this month a fresh, 15-billion-euro tranche of the aid, but set a tougher target for privatisation proceeds and called for more structural reforms.
(courtesy sourced: The Telegraph)
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