Protesters clashed with police and set fire to cars and a hotel in central Athens today as tens of thousands marched against austerity measures aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis.

Riot police responded with dozens of rounds of teargas during the biggest and most violent march since three people died in protests in May.

Hours earlier, parliament approved reforms and spending cuts that are a condition of a €110bn (£92bn) EU/IMF bailout granted in May.

As the march reached parliament, about 200 leftwing protesters attacked former conservative minister Kostis Hatzidakis. His face was covered in blood as he took shelter in a building, witnesses said.

Police said nine people were arrested and another 11 temporarily detained, while three were injured.

Striking public and private sector workers had already grounded flights, shut down schools and paralysed the public transport network.

Ships remained docked at ports, hospitals were working with a skeleton staff and ministries were shut down as civil servants and private sector workers stayed away.

There was no television or radio news as journalists were on strike.

Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of the civil servants' union ADEDY, said the march was bigger than the one in May attended by 50,000 people.

"People have had enough. The anger is so great that nobody can stop it," he said.