The three bank workers a man and two women died after demonstrators set their bank on fire along the main demonstration route in central Athens .
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bank worker man woman die demonstrator set bank fire main demonstration route central athens
The three bank workers a <m> man </m> and two women died after demonstrators set their bank on fire along the main demonstration route in central Athens .
http : / / usatoday30 . usatoday . com / news / world / 2010 - 05 - 05 - greece - strike - crisis _ N . htm
Three die in bank during Greek riots
Updated 5 / 5 / 2010 1 : 41 PM
Riots over harsh new austerity measures left three bank workers dead and engulfed the streets of Athens on Wednesday , as angry protesters tried to storm parliament , hurled Molotov cocktails at police and torched buildings .
Police responded with barrages of tear gas .
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in a nationwide strike to protest new taxes and government spending cuts demanded by the International Monetary Fund and other European nations before heavily indebted Greece gets a euro110 billion ( $141 billion ) loan package to keep it from defaulting .
The three bank workers a <m> man </m> and two women died after demonstrators set their bank on fire along the main demonstration route in central Athens .
As their colleagues sobbed in the street , five other bank workers were rescued from the balcony of the burning building .
"A demonstration is one thing and murder is quite another ! " Prime Minister George Papandreou thundered in Parliament during a session to discuss the spending cuts he announced Sunday measures even the IMF has called draconian .
Lawmakers held a minute of silence for the dead the first deaths during a protest in Greece since 1991 .
"We are all concerned by Greece's economic and budgetary situation but at this time our thoughts are with the human victims in Athens , " European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said in Brussels .
A senior fire department official said demonstrators prevented firefighters from reaching the burning building , costing them vital time .
"Several crucial minutes were lost , " the official said , visibly upset .
"If we had intervened earlier , the loss of life could have been prevented . "
He asked not to be identified pending an official announcement .
In Berlin , German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Greek bailout critical for all of Europe .
"Nothing less than the future of Europe , and with that the future of Germany in Europe , is at stake , " Merkel told lawmakers in Berlin , urging them to quickly pass the country's share of the bailout euro22 billion ( $28 billion ) over three years by Friday .
"We are at a fork in the road . "
Greece faces a May 19 due date on debt it says it can't repay without the help .
In Brussels , European Union officials desperately tried to calm market fears that Greece's debt crisis was spreading to the rest of Europe , insisting it was a "unique case" combining profligacy and tampered accounts .
Van Rompuy insisted the growing debt problems in Spain and Portugal had "absolutely nothing to do with the situation in Greece . "
"Greece is a unique and particular case in the EU" because of its "precarious debt dynamics" and because it "has cheated with its statistics for years and years , " EU Commissioner Olli Rehn said .
But Moody's Investor Services , a major ratings agency , put Portugal's bond rating on review for possible downgrade Wednesday .
Spanish and Portuguese bonds and stocks slumped further on the news , reflecting fears that they may also have trouble repaying their debt and that the eurozone would have to extend even larger bailouts to them .
On the streets of Athens , demonstrators chanted "Thieves , thieves ! " as they attempted to break through a riot police cordon guarding Parliament and chased ceremonial guards away from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the building .
Tear gas drifted across the city center as rioters hurled paving stones and fire bombs at police .
Firefighters extinguished blazes at least two buildings the bank and a branch of the Finance Ministry while protesters set up burning barricades and torched cars and a fire truck .
Police said 12 people were injured in the riots .
The marches came amid a 24 - hour nationwide general strike that grounded all flights to and from Greece , shut down ports , schools and government services , and left hospitals working with emergency medical staff .
The Acropolis and all other ancient sites were closed and journalists also walked off the job , suspending television and radio news broadcasts .
But media later broke the strike to report on the deaths and the protests .
Violence also broke out in the northern city of Thessaloniki , where another 20 , 000 people marched through the city center and some youths smashed store windows .
Union reaction over austerity measures until now had been relatively muted by Greece's volatile standards , despite several previous strikes .
But anger mounted after Papandreou announced cuts in salaries and pensions for civil servants and another round of consumer tax increases .
Papandreou said he has no choice but to implement the measures if Greece was to avoid bankruptcy .
"There was only one other solution for the country to default , taking the citizenry with it .
And that would not have affected the rich , it would have affected workers and pensioners , " he told Parliament on Wednesday .
"That was a real possibility , however nightmarish . "
Under the bailout package , Greece will receive loans over three years from the IMF and the other 15 countries who share the euro currency .
The rescue aims to prevent Athens' debt troubles from becoming a wider crisis for the euro .
But the rioting underlined skepticism that the Greek government could keep up its end of the bargain , helping drive the euro below $1 . 29 for the first time in over a year .
Even with the bailout , many economists think Greece will eventually default on or restructure its debts because its prospects for economic growth are so poor over the next several years , hurting government revenue .
Some fear the austerity measures insisted upon by the EU and IMF could make prospects for growth even worse .
Unions say low - income Greeks will suffer disproportionately from the latest austerity measures , which aim to save euro30 billion ( $40 billion ) the country's current budget deficit through 2012 .
"These people are losing their rights , they are losing their future , " said Yiannis Panagopoulos , head of GSEE , one of the two largest unions .
"The country cannot surrender without a fight . "
IMF chief Dominique Strauss - Kahn warned that the crisis could spread to other countries despite the rescue package's efforts to contain it .
"Everyone must remain extremely vigilant" to this risk , Strauss - Kahn said in an interview in French newspaper Le Parisien Wednesday .
"I completely understand the Greek population's anger , its incomprehension at the size of the economic catastrophe , " Strauss - Kahn said .
But , he said , Greeks must also understand that without these measures "the situation would be infinitely more serious . "
The draft bill of the new austerity measures is to be voted on Thursday .
Papandreou's Socialists hold a comfortable majority of 160 in the 300 - seat Parliament and the bill is expected to pass easily .