Tens of thousands of striking Greek civil servants have held a mass rally in central Athens in protest at wage and pension cuts.

Unions called the 24-hour general strike in reponse to austerity measures aimed at fixing Greece’s broken public finances.

Public services ground to a halt as protesters converged on parliament to voice their disgust at the government slashing spending to satisfy the terms of a 110 billion euro bailout from the EU and IMF.

They shouted slogans such as “thieves come out “ and “give us back our stolen money” as baton-wielding riot police held the demonstrators back.

While some tempers flared, there was no repeat of the violence of a similar protest on the 5th of May when three people died in running street battles with officers.

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