Marking the anniversary of a 1973 student revolt, thousands of Athenians marched to the US Embassy, the country they accused for supporting the military junta at that time.

12.000 demonstrators, mostly students and workers, marched through the capital beating drums and chanting slogans such as "Education, Security, and Work".

When a group of protestors attacked and threw stones at police and set fire to garbage cans, the riot police fired teargas to disperse them.

Many cars were destroyed and 13 policemen were injured in the clashes in central Athens on Tuesday.

The riot police arrested a protestor who was carrying a Molotov cocktail, and detained 12 others.

The annual march marks the uprising at the Athens Polytechnic University in November 1973 which was crushed by the military junta then ruling Greece. Scores were believed to have been killed when tanks rolled through the school's gates and in the surrounding streets.

The revolt heralded the end of the 1967-1974 dictatorship.