Greek police clash with protesters in lockdown

Greek police fired teargas and used water cannon to disperse protesters in Athens.

They were marching to commemorate a bloody 1973 student uprising against the military.

But they were defying a ban on public gatherings, enforced to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Leftist and Communist opposition parties slammed the decision as "authoritarian". Earlier in the day, police did not intervene as dozens of Communist KKE party members held a rally to mark the uprising anniversary.

They were wearing masks and heeding social distancing rules.

The 1973 student revolt near the end of the junta’s rule is seen as a defining moment in modern Greek history.

In the morning, Greece's president, political parties, and citizens laid a wreath and flowers at the empty Athens Polytechnic University.

The campus in the city center would usually be filled with hundreds of people paying homage to those killed.