Gangs of self-styled anarchists in hoods used Molotov cocktails to torch shops in central Athens as well as two historic cinemas, the Apollo and Attikon, as MPs debated a new debt deal in Parliament on Sunday night.

Hooded youths smashed the facades of several stores and witnesses reported instances of looting. Earlier, groups of youths had clashed with police, pelting them with rocks and firebombs. Police responded by firing large clouds of acrid tear gas.

Branches of major foreign chains and banks were targeted with a branch of Starbucks among those to go up in flames.

The arsonists were a small section of a large peaceful crowd. A police spokesman put the crowd numbers at 60,000 while unions claimed the real number was really double that. A spokesman for the Athens police said that several demonstrators and police had been injured in street-fighting but could not give final numbers. “There’s still a lot of tension,” he said.