Bloodied but defiant: 10,000 Greek strikers and police in running battles as debt-ridden country starts a 24-hour walkout



Greek riot police have fired teargas at petrol bomb throwing youths and charged them wielding batons as 10,000 public sector workers marched to protest against budget cuts and high taxes.



The country is today in the grip of a 24-hour national strike which has seen flights grounded, schools shut and people on the streets trying to storm the Athens parliament of its bankrupt government.



Violence broke out as anarchists mixed with the marchers and started attacking more than 1,000 police with any weapons they could find.



Battleground: A beaten man covered in his own blood after being caught up in today's protests

Anger: Protesters march in front of the parliament during the anti-austerity rally today

This has been the first nationwide walkout in months and marked the start of what campaigners say is the culmination of two years of tax hikes and wage cuts.



In the chaos hospitals ran on emergency rotas and some state schools closed.

Train services were also halted and more than 400 international and domestic flights were cancelled at Athens airport.



The thousands of state workers, pensioners and students gathered in central Athens, beating drums and waving banners reading 'Erase the debt!' and 'The rich must pay!'



Street battle: A Molotov fire bomb explodes as it strikes riot police as anarchists join marchers

Injured: A riot officer desperately tries to put out his flaming uniform as a line of police is hit with a petrol bomb

Despite the cuts demanded by the EU and the IMF, the government was forced to announce this week it would still miss its 2011 deficit target by nearly 2 billion euros, rattling global markets.



Greeks themselves lack faith in their leaders as polls show nearly four out of five expect the country to default on their massive national debt within months.



'We want this government out. They deceived us. They promised to tax the rich and help the poor, but they didn't,' said Sotiris Pelekanos, 39, an engineer and one of the striking workers gathered in central Athens.



'I don't care if we go bankrupt. We are already bankrupt. It's just a matter of the state realising it. We've lost everything.'

Stand-off: A rioter carrying a bat wears a gas mask to cope with tear gas being fired at the hundreds in the streets

A separate group of thousands of communist-affiliated workers marched into the central Syntagma square, carrying red flags and chanting: 'We don't have jobs! We don't have rights! No sacrifice for the bosses!'



In June, more than 100 people were injured in clashes between demonstrators and police in Syntagma Square.



Greece's main labour unions ADEDY and GSEE expected hundreds of thousands of people to walk out of work today.



'They are not trying to save Greece. They are just killing workers,' ADEDY Vice President Ilias Vrettakos said in a speech during the rally. 'They should get the money from the rich, not from us.'



Attack: Riot police wield there batons and detain a demonstrator during clashes today

Away from the demonstrations, the streets of the capital were calm. Much of the private sector did not participate in the strike but will take part in another strike on October 19.



Many in the Greek private sector resent the perks of state workers, who make up about a fifth of Greece's workforce and are protected from redundancy by the constitution.



The reforms have taken on a new urgency this week after the announcement that Greece will miss its 2011 deficit target.



Storm: People try to break through a a high fence blocking the entrance to the Greek Parliament

The target was written into a 109 billion euro bailout package agreed in July — the second huge bailout in two years — and if its terms need to be renegotiated, European banks that hold Greek debt could suffer a heavier blow.



EU officials are scrambling to protect banks from a repeat of the crisis that froze the world financial system in 2008.



They have postponed until mid-November a decision on whether to approve the next 8 billion euro tranche of bailout loans, giving negotiators more time to press the government to enact promised reforms.



Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Tuesday Greek finances for this year could slip even further if the country failed to rally round the reforms and show 'national cohesion and solidarity'.



His government has promised to hold a referendum on the fiscal crisis this autumn, although it is not clear what question Greeks would be asked or when it would be held. Parliament debated the referendum law on Wednesday even as the protesters were gathering in the streets outside.



Detained: A hooded youth is cornered by the police