This is a side street in Athens at 3:00 PM Eastern on February 12, 2012. The Greek Parliament has just approved the austerity measures imposed on Greece by the European Union.
“We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning, the centre of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our country down,” conservative lawmaker Costis Hatzidakis told parliament.
Inside the Greek Parliament
Athens, the long night of February 12: “burning and looting tonight”
Tens of banks and other buildings are burning across Athens after today’s demonstrations. There are huge riots in Thessaloniki and Patra as well. The situation seems to be spiralling out of control. We will try to summarise key developments through the night, below:
All times are GMT+2
00.22 A few hours ago, enraged demonstrators in the city of Corfu stormed the offices of the local ‘socialist’ MPs Gerekou and Dendias (an ex-minister of Justice), destroying them completely.
00.20 The town hall of the city of Volos is burning. Earlier, people had stormed the local tax office, destroying plenty of documents inside.
00.14 A demonstration has only just started in the city of Athens, with people roaming through the city’s streets and the police tucked away in the sidestreets.
00:07 Demonstrators attacked the Exarcheia Police station a few minutes ago.
23:45 Smoke from tear gas and burning buildings has covered central Athens. Clashes are still going on and the streets are full of people. Earlier, a lot of demonstrators tried to attack the house of the former Prime Minister Costas Simitis in the upper class district of Kolonaki (Anagnostopoulou st.)they clashed with the police units guarding the house.
Earlier a group of demonstrators tried to invade Acropolis police station. The police officers managed to protect the police station but several of them were injured while police vehicles in front of the station were burnt.
Early in the afternoon a DELTA motorcycle police unit, was trapped by demonstrators: people held a rope across the street throwing down the speeding motorcycles.
23.10 GMT+2 It is entirely impossible to estimate the number of people who have taken to the streets in Athens tonight. They are definitely in the hundreds of thousands – there are simply people everywhere.
23.07 GMT+2 The building of Marfin bank (the same building where three bank workers died on May 5, 2010) has been burnt to the ground.
23.05 GMT+2 A gun shop in Omonoia, Athens, has been looted.
23.02 GMT+2 Information about the alleged occupation of the town hall is confirmed: a group of people entered the building, only to be evicted and arrested by riot police a few minutes later.
22.42 GMT+2 The town hall of Athens has allegedly been occupied.
22.40 GMT+2 Police attack and cut off people in the Law school. At least 200 people are trapped inside.
22.30 GMT+2 At least 20 demonstrators and another 30 police have been injured during the day’s clashes.
