Collapse of the Global Economy

3 Bank Workers Dead as Anti-austerity Riots Erupt in Athens

Greek fire officials say three people have died in a blaze that broke out at an Athens bank during rioting over government austerity measures. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets as part of nationwide strikes 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 (US$141 billion) bailout package of loans to keep it from defaulting.

May 5, 2010

Associated Press - 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 man 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.


Activists of the anti-globalization movement Attac masked as Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and as International Monetary Fund protest with toy axes near the chancellery against the cut of social services in Greece and the measures of the IWF and European Union at the finance crisis, in Berlin, Wednesday, May 5, 2010. The protesters demand a debt cancellation for Greece and a participation of the finance industry.(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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 ...

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