The Associated Press
Thursday, March 8, 2007; 8:42 PM

ATHENS, Greece -- Rioters protesting education reforms battled police for more than three hours Thursday, hurling Molotov cocktails and vandalizing businesses in central Athens, leaving more than 40 people injured, authorities said.

Police said 13 police officers were among those hurt in violence that erupted outside Parliament during a rally against education reforms. More than 60 people were arrested.

"I've never seen anything like it, so many petrol bombs," said one riot policeman, who asked not to be identified. "Five of my colleagues are hurt. We've seized flare guns and wooden bats from the rioters."

Police in Athens responded with massive amounts of tear gas to some of the worst violence since students began protests against the proposed reforms to increase the autonomy of state-run universities, and relax a ban on police entering campuses.

Greece's conservative government has promised to overhaul the higher education system and change the constitution to allow private universities from next year.

Riots also later broke out in Greece's second largest city early Friday, hours after the rampage in Athens near the capital's main Syntagma Square.

Demonstrators in the northern city of Thessaloniki threw Molotov cocktails at police, who responded with tear gas. The youths later barricaded themselves inside a university building near the city center.