Athens: More than 10,000 people demonstrated peacefully on Thursday in Athens as lawmakers voted on a drastic austerity package, a day after protests against cutbacks degenerated into deadly riots, police said.
About 5,000 trade union demonstrators marched in front of the Parliament, with anti-riot police forming a line around the building, according to police spokesman Thanassis Kokalakis.
The marchers unfurled a long black cloth in a sign of mourning for three people who died on Wednesday after hooligans hurled a firebomb inside a bank on the sidelines of the protests.
Meanwhile, the PAME communist union drew 6,000 protestors at a separate square in central Athens, Kokalakis said. Greece`s main unions have condemned Wednesday`s deadly violence, while calling on their members to keep up the momentum of demonstrations against the planned spending cuts and tax hikes.
PTI
