Tensions explode: A riot policeman is engulfed by flames after being hit by a Molotov cocktail in Athens
Onslaught: Missiles litter the street as crowds of rioters, many of them masked, surge up a hill to confront police in the centre of Athens yesterday. At least 18 people were hurt
Running from the mob: A policeman flees protesters in the northern city of Thessaloniki
Under attack: Riot police react to a Molotov cocktail as it explodes on a bridge during the demonstrations
Three bank workers died yesterday after a mob protesting against spending cuts set their building ablaze.
As polling stations around Britain opened at 7am today, latest UK opinion polls suggest David Cameron is within touching distance of achieving a working majority.
But while polls still pointed to a hung Parliament, economists warned that Britain could ill-afford a period of political uncertainty.
The need for decisive leadership was underlined by official figures showing the UK's budget shortfall will be the biggest in the EU this year - even overtaking Greece.
With 'contagion' from Athens threatening to spread through other debt-laden economies, David Cameron made a last-ditch plea to voters to back a strong Tory government.
He told the Daily Mail that unless Britain 'rolled up its sleeves' and got on with paying off its deficit, it risked an economic crisis.
Two employees, covered in black from the smoke, cry out in terror from the top floor of the Marfin Egnatia Bank where they were trapped
Firemen reach the balcony and coax one of the women down on to the ladder
Smoke pours from the bank as the two trapped women peer desperately down from the balcony
Inferno: Flames tear through another bank targeted in the financial district
Day of violence: Rioters hurl missiles outside the Parliament building in Athens
'Murder': A medic prepares to remove the body of a woman who perished in the bank fire
Rising up: Demonstrators massing in Syntagma Square in front of the Greek parliament in Athens
Scene of horror: Riot police in front of the burnt-out Marfin Egnatia Bank, where three people died after it was set ablaze during the massive demonstration
But Gordon Brown rejected any comparisons between the two countries. 'Greece is in a different stratosphere as far as debt is concerned,' he insisted.
The frenetic last day of campaigning was overshadowed by events in Athens, where crowds fighting deep emergency budget cuts torched government buildings and banks and tried to storm parliament.
Police were attacked with firebombs, paving stones and chunks of marble hacked from historic buildings. They hit back with stun grenades and tear gas. The rioting spread to the northern city of Thessaloniki as a 24-hour general strike brought the country to a halt.
After months of dithering over how to rein in its vast deficit, the Greek government has been forced to plead for a £93billion international bail-out package and implement hugely unpopular austerity measures, to be voted on today.
Amid the rioting, the euro plunged, stock markets crashed and German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted the very 'future of Europe' was at stake.
Financial markets are increasingly concerned about the crisis in Britain's finances, which Labour has taken to worst state since the end of the Second World War.
The UK was highlighted as a key risk in an alarming European Commission report yesterday, which said our budget deficit for this year will hit 12 per cent of national income, the highest of all 27 member nations and worse than Treasury forecasts.
Britain's budget shortfall was the third largest in the EU last year, but it will now overtake both Greece and Ireland. The austerity measures being imposed on Greece in exchange for the bail-out will slash its deficit to 9.3 per cent.
EU Commissioner Olli Rehn, issuing the regular spring economic forecast for member states, warned that 'the very high deficit' and 'high debt level' of the UK economy was 'by far the first and foremost challenge' facing a new government.
Experts stressed the urgency of tackling the debt crisis.
Financial historian Professor Niall Ferguson, tells today's Spectator magazine that a new Tory government should call in the International Monetary Fund for only the second time in British history.
He said: 'There is a very real danger that [things] could now spiral, Greek-style, out of all control if foreign confidence in sterling slumps and long-term interest rates rise.'
Professor Ferguson said Britain needed to 'wield the axe ruthlessly' with the hope of returning the budget to balance over eight to ten years and should 'initiate talks with the IMF in case external support proves to be necessary'.
Economist Michael Saunders of Citigroup said: 'The European Commission's latest economic forecasts highlight the weak state of the UK's fiscal position.
'From such a large deficit, we suspect that it will be hard for a hung parliament to establish a credible path back to fiscal sustainability.'Ted Scott, director of UK equity strategy at fund managers F&C, said there was a danger that contagion from Greece would spread outside the eurozone. He said the UK was seen as particularly vulnerable given its large debt and proximity to Europe.
But Mr Brown vowed yesterday to carry on spending - retreating to his old dividing line of 'Labour investment versus Tory cuts' in the dying hours of the campaign.
The Prime Minister sought to shore up Labour support by attacking Conservative plans to limit tax credits for families earning £50,000 or more.
Mr Brown claimed a Tory Budget to rein in wasteful spending would threaten 'higher unemployment, higher business failures, lower growth and a danger of a double-dip recession'.
But Mr Cameron told the Mail Britain risked a Greek-style crisis, including spiralling interest rates, unless it started dealing with the unprecedented deficit.
He said: 'The more we borrow the more risk that there is that people who are lending us the money ask for more. The threat of rising interest rates is not dealing with our debts. It's the same with your credit card, the same with any unsecured debt you have.
'Greece has got a debt crisis and a borrowing crisis. This year we are actually borrowing more than Greece, but the Government say "don't do anything this year".'
Three die in the battle of Athens
Three bank workers, one of them pregnant, were killed yesterday as protests by up to 100,000 Greeks against spending cuts turned deadly.
On a day of violence in Athens, masked anarchists hurled Molotov cocktails and paving stones at police and smashed shopfronts.
Others tried repeatedly to storm parliament, chanting 'thieves, thieves'.
They are desperate to defeat the package of austerity measures aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy on which the parliament will vote today.
Riot police responded with stun grenades, flash bombs and volleys of tear gas that left clouds of smoke wafting over the capital.
There were also riots in the northern city of Thessaloniki, amid a 24-hour national strike which saw flights grounded, trains and ferries suspended and public services paralysed.
In the most horrific incident, 20 terrified staff were trapped in the burning Marfin bank after it was firebombed by protesters. The mob blocked firefighters from getting to the blaze.
Two women and a man suffocated in the smoke as they tried to escape the flames. Bank officials told reporters one woman had been pregnant.
A fire department official said their lives could have been saved had ' crucial minutes' not been lost getting through the rioters' blockades.
Other staff, some with blackened faces, waited for rescue at windows and on balconies. Firemen had to restrain a distraught elderly woman outside the bank, who wept and cried 'my child, my child'.
Prime Minister George Papandreou expressed shock at the deaths and vowed to bring those responsible to justice. 'We are deeply shocked by the unjust death of these three people, our fellow citizens, who were victims of a murderous act,' he said.
But he insisted the government would not abandon its drive to save the country from ruin. 'We took these decisions to save the country,' he said. 'The alternative would be bankruptcy.'
Several other buildings were also set alight during extensive clashes across a broad swathe of central Athens.
They included the finance ministry in charge of the austerity programme.
Violence also broke out in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where 20,000 people marched through the centre and youths smashed the windows of stores and fast food restaurants.
The protests came amid a 24-hour nationwide general strike that grounded all flights to and from Greece, shut down ports, schools and government services and left hospitals working with emergency medical staff.
The Acropolis and all other ancient sites were closed, while journalists also walked off the job, suspending television and radio news broadcasts.
Police said 18 people had been injured and 12 arrested for carrying weapons and resisting authorities.
Last night there were fears that the violence could continue for at least another day.
The austerity package is being introduced in return for a £95billion international bail-out for Greece. The measures include wage freezes, deep pension cuts and tax rises.
The deal is designed to stop Greece defaulting and prevent its troubles becoming a wider eurozone crisis by engulfing countries such as Spain and Portugal.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged parliament to quickly pass her country's share of the bailout, warning that 'nothing less than the future of Europe' was at stake.
European Council president Herman van Rompuy said last night: 'We are all concerned by the Greek economic and budgetary situation but at this moment our thoughts are with the human victims in Athens.'
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