The Associated Press
 AP Photo,Thanassis Stavrakis Greek firefighters set fire to trash. |
ATHENS, Greece — Greek riot police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of firefighters demonstrating in central Athens Thursday to demand permanent employment status.
No injuries or arrests were reported.
Firefighters said they would hold an all-night vigil outside Finance Ministry despite being dispersed earlier by riot police using tear gas and stun grenades when some protesters tried to break a police cordon.
Protesters responded by throwing plastic bottles. They set trash on fire to counteract the tear gas.
More than 1,000 firefighters also protested peacefully earlier Thursday outside the Labor Ministry but were dispersed by tear gas.
Some 5,500 Greek firefighters are employed on short-term contracts, mostly for the summer months when the risk of forest blazes is highest. Their union accuses the government of breaking a pledge to grant them permanent job status.
Hundreds of forest fires break out in Greece every summer. In 2007, 76 people died in a spate of wildfires that destroyed 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of forest, farmland and olive groves in August alone.