Athens---Greek banks and the Athens stock market will be closed on Monday and capital controls will be imposed, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced, pleading for calm after anxious citizens emptied ATMs in a dramatic escalation of the country's debt crisis.
In a statement, Tsipras on Sunday said the Bank of Greece had recommended a "bank holiday and restriction of bank withdrawals" after international creditors refused to extend the nation's bailout beyond its June 30 expiry date, sparking default fears over an IMF loan repayment due the same day.
Amid growing concern the country was headed for financial collapse and a possible eurozone exit, the European Central Bank said earlier on Sunday it would not increase its financial support to Greek banks.
In a bid to stave off panic, Tsipras said the Greek stock market would also remain closed on Monday and he added that Athens had again asked requested a "prolongation of the (bailout) programme".
Urging calm, he assured Greeks their deposits, were "totally safe".
"Equally safe is the reimbursement of salaries and pensions," he said.
"Any difficulties that may arise must be dealt with with calmness. The more calm we are, the sooner we will get over this situation."
Uncertainty over how events will unfold in coming days prompted long queues of up to a hundred people to form outside some ATMs in Athens.
"I tried many machines -- five, six, eight, ten -- I am not sure," said Voula, who was on the lookout for a working ATM in central Athens.
"I feel anxious, sad, angry about the government," she told AFP. "They put Greece on a very dangerous adventure."
Since Friday night alone, 1.3 billion euros ($1.45 billion) have been withdrawn from the Greek banking system, according to the head of the bank workers' union Stavros Koukos.
A banking source in Greece said only 40 percent of cash machines now had money in them and a host of European governments including London and Paris advised citizens travelling to Greece to carry money with them.
- 'Real risk' -
The Frankfurt-based ECB's governing council earlier held a crisis telephone conference and pledged to maintain emergency liquidity assistance -- keeping open its life-support for Greek banks and, by extension, the Greek state.
But it pledged no extra cash for banks, amid signs a bank run was gathering pace.
The long festering crisis took a sharp turn for the worse on Friday night after months of deadlocked negotiations between the new hard-left government of Tsipras and the country's creditors.
The two sides have been at odds over the economic reforms demanded by the creditors in exchange for fresh cash needed to keep the Greek state afloat.
AFP
