VIOLENT CLASHES erupted outside the parliament in Athens yesterday between riot police and protesters marking the third anniversary of the fatal shooting of a Greek youth by police.

There were also clashes in the northern city of Thessaloniki over the Greek government’s increased austerity measures, where police arrested ten people.

In Athens, police responded to protesters’ volleys of bottles and petrol bombs with tear gas and stun grenades. Over two dozen people were injured in the clashes and almost 40 protesters were arrested, according to Al Jazeera.

A number of groups were holding anti-austerity protests in the capital, while thousands of other people yesterday marked the third anniversary of the death of a teenager shot by police in the city. The death sparked major riots in 2008.

The 300-seat parliament voted 258 to 41 in favour of the 2012 budget which extends a range of spending cuts already introduced by the government, Ekathimerini reports. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned that this would be a “difficult budget” with “ambitious targets”, but that fiscal targets must be achieved.

Greece was not among the list of eurozone countries credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s issued a notice of possible downgrades on earlier this week, but the country’s rating is so low concerns have been building for months that Greece will default on its debt.