http://www.news.com.au/world/greece-bailout-fears-spark-atm-panic-as-parts-of-co...Greece bailout fears spark ATM panic, as parts of country run out of money
18 HOURS AGO JUNE 28, 2015 11:34AM

Greeks queue in front of the National Bank to use ATM to withdraw cash in a panic. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
AS Greece hurtled closer to the catastrophic possibility of a euro exit, ATM queues are growing amid fears that banks will not open on Monday, and the government could impose capital controls to stop more deposits fleeing the country.
The most dramatic day in the five-month crisis saw long lines of people queuing at cash machines in Greece in fear of capital controls as Athens looked certain to default on a huge IMF payment on Tuesday.

People queue at a national Bank of Greece ATM in central Athens. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
The queues have been growing in Athens while ATMs in the Greek parliament ran dry. In Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, some banks have run out of money, AFP reports.
Demand at petrol stations was also said to have “heightened” but there were no fuel shortage problems, according to state news agency ANA.
The European Central Bank will now play a crucial role in ensuring Greece’s banks have the cash to open at the beginning of next week, as with the end of the bailout program Greece leaves behind billions of euros in profits on its government bonds.
Two top Tsipras aides met ECB head Mario Draghi in Brussels. The governing council of the ECB was also reported to be meeting on Sunday, and was “closely monitoring developments”, the bank said.
Greece hurtled closer to the catastrophic possibility of a euro exit after Europe responded to the government’s call for a referendum by refusing to extend Athens’s desperately needed bailout.
Germany said the eurozone would do “everything” to protect contagion through the single currency.
Leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced the referendum on bailout proposals by Greece’s creditors via a televised speech in the small hours of Saturday, saying he had rejected a debt deal because it involved further austerity measures that would cause “humiliation” to the Greek people.

Greeks queue in front of the National Bank to use ATM to withdraw cash. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
Angry eurozone finance ministers accused Greece of “unilaterally” breaking off talks and said they would not extend Greece’s bailout past June 30, the same day a 1.5 billion euro payment to the International Monetary Fund falls due.
“It was not us who walked away from the talks, it was the Greek government that walked away,” a grim-faced Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said after tense talks in Brussels.
But he added: “Our door is always open.” The Greek parliament was to vote on whether to go ahead with the referendum at midnight, after an address by Tsipras.
The news comes as Germany and France swiftly insisted that Greece would remain inside the 19-country eurozone, with European capitals increasingly nervous that the once “irreversible” single currency is itself at risk.
“Greece remains a member of the eurozone and Greece remains part of Europe,” said Germany’s powerful Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.