Clashes again erupt in Athens

Masked youths set up burning barricades and threw firebombs and chunks of marble at Athens riot police after a protest march erupted into new fighting that sent Christmas shoppers and panicked parents fleeing to safety.

Mothers snatched children from a carousel in the main square. Waiters stumbled from cafes, choking on tear gas fired by police at rioters trying to burn the capital’s Christmas tree, replaced days ago after another tree was torched.

A slogan painted outside the Bank of Greece read, “Merry crisis and a happy new fear.”