Violence breaks out at Greece anti-austerity demonstrations
Source: Agencies |
October 19, 2012, Friday
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HUNDREDS of youths pelted riot police with petrol bombs, bottles and chunks of marble yesterday as yet another Greek anti-austerity demonstration descended into violence, less than a month after more intense clashes broke out during a similar protest.
Authorities said around 70,000 protesters took to the street in two separate demonstrations in Athens during the country's second general strike in a month as workers across the country walked off the job to protest new austerity measures the government is negotiating with Greece's international creditors.
A 65-year-old protester suffered a fatal heart attack during the demonstration but efforts to revive him failed. The organizers of the protest march he participated in said the man had fallen ill before any rioting had broken out.
The measures for 2013-14, worth US$17.7 billion, aim to prevent the country from going bankrupt and potentially having to leave the 17-nation eurozone.
Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades in the Greek capital's Syntagma Square outside Parliament as protesters scattered during the clashes, which continued on and off for about an hour.
Four demonstrators were injured after being hit by police, volunteer paramedics said. The Health Ministry said two of the protesters were treated in hospital and that their injuries were not serious.
Hundreds of police were deployed in Athens ahead of the demonstration. Police said about 50 people were detained.
A similar demonstration by about 17,000 people in the northern city of Thessaloniki ended peacefully.
The strike grounded flights, shut down public services, closed schools, hospitals and shops and hampered public transport in the capital. Taxi drivers joined in for nine hours, while a three-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers led to flight cancellations. Islands were left cut off as ferries stayed in ports.
Athens has seen hundreds of anti-austerity protests over the past three years, since Greece revealed it had been misreporting its public finance figures. With confidence ravaged and austerity demanded, the country has sunk into a deep economic recession that has many of the same hallmarks of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"We are sinking in a swamp of recession and it's getting worse," said Dimitris Asimakopoulos, head of a small business and industry association. "About 70,000 businesses are expected to close in the next few months."
Authorities said around 70,000 protesters took to the street in two separate demonstrations in Athens during the country's second general strike in a month as workers across the country walked off the job to protest new austerity measures the government is negotiating with Greece's international creditors.
A 65-year-old protester suffered a fatal heart attack during the demonstration but efforts to revive him failed. The organizers of the protest march he participated in said the man had fallen ill before any rioting had broken out.
The measures for 2013-14, worth US$17.7 billion, aim to prevent the country from going bankrupt and potentially having to leave the 17-nation eurozone.
Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades in the Greek capital's Syntagma Square outside Parliament as protesters scattered during the clashes, which continued on and off for about an hour.
Four demonstrators were injured after being hit by police, volunteer paramedics said. The Health Ministry said two of the protesters were treated in hospital and that their injuries were not serious.
Hundreds of police were deployed in Athens ahead of the demonstration. Police said about 50 people were detained.
A similar demonstration by about 17,000 people in the northern city of Thessaloniki ended peacefully.
The strike grounded flights, shut down public services, closed schools, hospitals and shops and hampered public transport in the capital. Taxi drivers joined in for nine hours, while a three-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers led to flight cancellations. Islands were left cut off as ferries stayed in ports.
Athens has seen hundreds of anti-austerity protests over the past three years, since Greece revealed it had been misreporting its public finance figures. With confidence ravaged and austerity demanded, the country has sunk into a deep economic recession that has many of the same hallmarks of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"We are sinking in a swamp of recession and it's getting worse," said Dimitris Asimakopoulos, head of a small business and industry association. "About 70,000 businesses are expected to close in the next few months."
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