Athens - Jittery housewives, shoppers and business owners formed long lines at cash machines across Greece on a day dubbed “Black Monday”.
“No money, no hope, how did we get in this situation? This is Black Monday,” unemployed Chris Bakas, 28, told AFP as he stood sweating in the Athens sun, staring at an ATM screen.
World markets tumbled on Monday as Greece shut its banks and imposed capital controls to halt a panic-driven run on ATMs, a day before Athens risked defaulting and possibly crashing out of the euro.
Global stocks fell, with Frankfurt and Paris losing more than three percent after a slump in Asia, as investors feared a 'Grexit'.
The euro steadied after hitting a one-month low under $1.10 on Sunday.
Athens issued a decree to close banks until July 6 - the day after a referendum on creditors' bailout proposals - with a 60-euro ($65) limit on cashpoint withdrawals. Foreign tourists, a vital engine of the Greek economy, will be exempt.
However, the drastic measures - designed to protect the banking system against the threat of mass panic - sent Greeks rushing to withdraw their daily allowance.
On the city's historic Syntagma square, the scene of fierce riots in the past over biting austerity measures imposed by the country's international creditors, tourists snapping photographs of the parliament buildings said they felt the tension in the air.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had urged restraint on Sunday after announcing the restrictions.
“Any difficulties that may arise must be dealt with calmness. The more calm we are, the sooner we will get over this situation,” Tsipras said, adding Athens had again requested a “prolongation of the (bailout) programme”.
The Athens stock market has meanwhile been shut until July 7.
Public transport will be free in Athens for a week to ease difficulties created by the closure of the banks and a rush on petrol stations, Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis said on Monday.
Locals and tourists will be able to ride buses, metro trains and trams for free in the country's capital and surrounding suburbs as soon as the decision is officially published, which is likely to be on Tuesday.
The offer is set to last until July 7, when in principle the banks will re-open.
A banking source in Greece said only 40 percent of cash machines had money in them on Sunday.
As Greece teetered on the edge of default this weekend, anxious drivers queued at petrol stations, with fuel sales up 20 percent on the previous week, according to the Greek union of petrol station owners.
“There is enough petrol... The lives of tourists in the urban centres, the peripheries or the islands will not be disrupted,” the economy and tourism ministry said, amid fears the crisis would hit the tourism industry.
Grigoris Stergioulis, CEO of the biggest oil company in the country Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE), told ANA press agency that “the refineries are working as normal and supply is fully assured, we have oil reserves for several months.”
AFP