A petrol bomb hurled at an Athens branch of the Marfin Investment Bank killed two women and a man who were caught in the resulting inferno .
killed
petrol bomb hurl athens branch marfin investment bank kill woman man catch result inferno
A petrol bomb hurled at an Athens branch of the Marfin Investment Bank <m> killed </m> two women and a man who were caught in the resulting inferno .
http : / / www . abc . net . au / news / 2010 - 05 - 05 / 3 - dead - after - protesters - torch - greek - bank / 423816
3 dead after protesters torch Greek bank
Updated Thu 6 May 2010 , 9 : 03am AEST
Three people died in a burning bank as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Athens during a general strike over the Greek government's planned spending cuts .
Some protesters tried to storm parliament while others threw petrol bombs at police and torched buildings in protest against new austerity measures and a decision to raise taxes to meet the conditions of its international bailout .
A petrol bomb hurled at an Athens branch of the Marfin Investment Bank <m> killed </m> two women and a man who were caught in the resulting inferno .
It was always going to be hard to convince Greeks that ripping $43 billion out of their public services and hiking their taxes was a necessary consequence of the international bailout .
As the Greek prime minister George Papandreou looked out from his parliamentary office , he saw exactly how angry they were .
"We are all deeply shocked by the unjust death of three of our citizens - citizens that were victims of a raw , murderous act , " Mr Papandreou said .
A professor of economics at the University of Athens , Yanis Varoufakis , did not go to work today because it was not safe .
But he rode his bicycle into the city to survey the aftermath of the day's mass demonstration .
"What I did witness was the battlefields after the troops had departed , " he said .
"There were a few still burning or smoking cars , a couple of fire engines that had been torched , a building that belongs to the finance ministry - not far away from home - was completely burned down .
"Otherwise , it was an empty city without people . "
Professor Varoufakis blames angry youths for the violence and deaths .
"It seems it was a large demonstration , which unfortunately was infiltrated by the usual band of 100 or 200 professional [ trouble - makers ] , " he said .
"They're the ones who created the circumstances for the death , the tragic death and loss of those three people . "
But Professor Varoufakis says there is "a very deep sense of injustice" across Greece .
"In the foreign media , even the local media , there is a portrayal of the Greek people living above their means , who are lazy , who are not working .
The truth , as always , is quite different from appearances , " he said .
"This is a country of incredibly hard - working people , people who have two and three jobs in order to make ends meet .
"Greece is also a country with the highest degree of poverty outside of Latvia in the whole of Europe , not just the eurozone , and it is a country in which a great deal of money was made over the last 10 - 20 years , but it was highly concentrated in a very small percentage of the population .
"The rest have been struggling through the good times , through times of economic growth , to survive .
Not to have a good life but just to survive , and they are the ones who now have to foot the bill for the economic collapse . "
As Athens burned , many in Berlin were still fuming about having to foot most of the bill for Greek profligacy .
German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed parliament , raising her voice above the catcalls and angry hecklers from the opposition parties .
"This is about nothing less than the future of Europe and with it the future of Germany in Europe , " she said .
Approval ratings for the chancellor have dropped six points since the aid package for Greece was announced .
Ms Merkel might pay a higher political price on the weekend when crucial regional elections are held .