Greek police tear gas austerity protest
Riot police in Athens fired tear gas against masked youths during a march on Thursday by tens of thousands of Greeks protesting austerity measures demanded by the new unity government.
Police said 27,000 people in Athens and 15,000 in the second city of Thessalonika joined demonstrations marking a 1973 student uprising seen as a key moment in the restoration of democracy in Greece nearly four decades ago.
"We will throw all of them out," promised a banner held aloft by students in the capital while another carried by anarchists read: "In the face of tyranny, one must choose between chains and arms."
The march, the first test of the scale of public defiance against the coalition set up to deal with Greek's crippling debt crisis, was a sombre, largely peaceful affair although violence flared briefly during the afternoon.
A group of protesters threw stones and two firebombs at police outside parliament, while a dozen masked youths set two large dustbins alight near the US embassy, said police, who had deployed 7,000 officers in anticipation of trouble.
Riot officers wearing body armour and wielding batons and shields responded with tear gas, protecting themselves with gas masks as the crowds ran away.
A police source said 11 people were arrested and four police officers hurt.
An empty guard box outside European Union offices was also set on fire during the demonstration, which dwarfed the 20,000 who gathered in Athens last year.
Greece is slogging through a third year of recession exacerbated by wage cuts and tax hikes imposed by the previous socialist government of George Papandreou.
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