Greek police fire tear gas to dispel protesters

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ATHENS: Police in Athens fired tear gas at protesters outside parliament as they tried to reach the exit of the building where parliamentary deputies were leaving following a confidence vote won by the government.

About 300 protesters who stayed overnight by the parliament awaiting results of the confidence vote clashed with police outside the building on Wednesday (June 22).

The confidence vote had just been passed in parliament when protesters tried to reach the exit to the building where deputies were leaving. Police fired tear gas in response and protesters responded with stones.

Police vans, metal barricades and fences blocked the parliament entrance and exit so the protesters could not approach.

Police fired several volleys of tear gas to dispel the protesters, who threw stones at police.

Over 20,000 thousand people had gathered earlier in the square opposite the Greek Parliament for an anti-austerity rally ahead of the late night confidence vote called by the country's prime minister, which his government won.