Greek police fired tear gas as protesters threw firebombs, burnt dustbins and vandalised shops yesterday during a two-day strike ahead of a vote on a new austerity Bill to stave off bankruptcy. The new austerity Bill introduces collective wage amendments, major tax break cuts, a new civil service salary system and temporary layoffs for thousands of public sector staff.

Police in Athens clashed with protesters outside Parliament as more than 70,000 people according to authorities, and 200,000 according to unions, converged on central Syntagma Square.

At least 17 people including three civilians were hurt, among them an off-duty officer struck by unknown assailants who seized his service handgun, a police source said. Nearly 5,000 policemen were on alert in the capital.

Tear gas blanketed central Athens as police fought to keep control on the square in front of the Greek Parliament.

The violence began when some 200 youths hurled firebombs and pieces of masonry hacked off from neighbouring buildings at police from behind a steel barricade erected outside the Parliament.

They vandalised shops, burnt dustbins and threw stones at the police.

A battle later broke out outside a row of luxury hotels on the square and a department store was vandalised as small groups of hooded and masked protesters broke away from the main demonstration.

A presidential guard sentry box was set on fire near the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Greece’s foremost military monument next to Parliament, before police moved in to clear the area.

The attackers also pelted police with broken masonry and refuse littering the city’s streets from a two-week strike by municipal garbage collectors, and smashed a police sentry box near the finance ministry.

Striking taxi owners in another part of the protest who set fire to garbage bins were also sprayed with tear gas and retaliated by throwing bottles at police.

Officers were also attacked in the second city of Thessaloniki where the government’s regional headquarters was assaulted by 100 protesters throwing firebombs.

The bulk of demonstrators in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion and other cities were peaceful despite boiling anger against the new wave of cuts imposed on a country already slogging through nearly two years of belt-tightening.