Police fire teargas at Greek anti-austerity protest

Greek police fired teargas to disperse anti-austerity protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs on the day of a general strike that brought much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill.

It was the second time in three weeks that Greek workers had walked off the job, with Thursday’s strike aimed at showing EU leaders meeting in Brussels that new wage and pension cuts will only worsen their plight after five years of recession.

More than 30,000 protesters gathered in central Athens as most business and public sector activity ground to a halt at the start of the 24-hour strike called by the country’s two biggest labour unions, ADEDY and GSEE.

Tensions mounted when a small group of protesters began throwing pieces of marble, bottles and petrol bombs at police barricading part of the square in front of parliament, prompting riot police to fire several rounds of teargas to disperse them.

“Enough is enough. They’ve dug our graves, shoved us in and we are waiting for the priest to read the last words,” said Konstantinos Balomenos, a 58-year-old worker at a water utility whose wage has been halved to 900 euros and who has two unemployed sons.

Some protesters were carrying Greek, Spanish and Portuguese flags and shouted: “EU, IMF out”.