ATHENS, Greece - October 19, 2011 - More than 60,000 protesters marched in Greek cities on Wednesday, police said, as a two-day general strike began against a new austerity bill demanded by Greece’s international creditors to avert bankruptcy.

The highest turnout was in Athens where over 52,000 people converged on central Syntagma Square, where Parliament is located, in separate protests organized by unions but also joined by unaffiliated Greeks fed up with austerity cuts.

“I work in the private sector and I’m in danger of losing my job,” said a 45-year-old woman who declined to be named. “Our bosses are taking the opportunity of the crisis to cut wherever they can. I’m desperate. The government’s measures are going from bad to worse without benefit for the country. We are all (being) terrorized,” she said.

Another 15,000 people demonstrated in the second city of Thessaloniki, local police said, and another protest was held in Heraklion on the island of Crete, where vandalism on bank branches was reported.

Authorities in Athens threw a cordon of riot police buses and a steel fence in front of Parliament and shut down two metro train stations in the area.

“Forward people, it’s now or never to throw out the government, the IMF and the EU,” said a banner carried by demonstrators.

“The government must fall now,” read another banner.

Some 3,000 officers were stationed around the capital, with additional forces guarding possible targets of violence such as embassies and government buildings.

A police motorcycle patrol was pelted with stones in the working-class district of Kaisiariani as the central Athens protests kicked off, and one of the riders was hurt, a police source said.