Helena Smith reports from Athens and discusses the social factors that led to the civil unrest Reuters

A general strike shut down schools, hospitals, flights and public services across Greece yesterday, touching off more riots that left dozens injured and the government severely shaken after five days of unprecedented civil unrest.

Stone-throwing youths fought pitched battles with riot police outside the Athens parliament as thousands of striking workers, in a separate demonstration, chanted their way through the capital.

Amid screams of "let parliament burn", protesters hurled petrol bombs, marble slabs and pieces of cement at police who responded by firing rounds of teargas into the air.

The clashes, triggered by the police shooting of 15-year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, are the worst disturbances to hit Greece since the end of military rule in 1974. Mobs have laid siege to cities nationwide plundering public buildings, stores and cars before setting fire to them.

With the country shut down and Greece's links to the world cut as a result of the strike, the conservative administration - already clinging onto power by a single seat in the 300 member House - found itself facing a political crisis.

Addressing the nation in a bid to contain the tensions, the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, yesterday pledged financial support for those who had been materially affected and promised to protect individuals from further violence.

But opposition over the free-market conservatives' fiscal policies and plans to privatise hospitals and schools is unlikely to fade soon. Support for the government, even from the most diehard conservatives, has dropped, with 70% telling pollsters they have mishandled the crisis. "These protests are our answer to a government that always closes the doors in our face," said student Yiannis Yiapitsakis.

Symbolic of the fear and loathing gripping Greece is the makeshift shrine erected on the spot in Athens where Grigoropoulos was shot dead.

In handwritten notes, cards, paintings and poems, Greeks of all ages not only honoured the young "martyr" but gave testimony to a country that appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "You have paid for what people like me who belong to the generation of 50-year-olds, know to be true," wrote one father in a note placed on top of a pile of roses, candles and plants. "That we are shaking with worry over the future of our children."

Yesterday, according to a lawyer for the two police officers accused in the fatal shooting, a ballistic examination revealed that the schoolboy had died as a result of an accident after the bullet ricocheted.