ATHENS — Skirmishes between demonstrators and the police broke out outside the Greek Parliament at the start of a two-day general strike on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets in the largest demonstration in Athens in months, if not years. A crowd of dozens of youths took advantage of the moment to smash several storefronts and begin looting.

A gasoline bomb thrown by demonstrators burned near riot police officers guarding the parliament in Athens on Wednesday during an anti-austerity protest.

The police put crowd estimates at around 80,000 people; some news Web sites said more than 100,000. The police would not release official figures yet.

A spokesman for the Athens police said 16 officers were injured, one by stone-throwing demonstrators, and that three demonstrators were also hurt. There was no immediate information on arrests.

The protest, called by the country’s two main labor unions, aims at a new round austerity measures that the debt-ridden government must pass through Parliament on Wednesday night and Thursday to secure the next installment of aid from the European Union. Only that will avert a default next month that could shake the euro zone and reverberate through the global economy.

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