ATHENS — Europe's fragile financial calm was shattered on Wednesday as investors worried that violent anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain's debt troubles showed that the continent cannot contain its financial crisis.

Police fired tear gas on Wednesday at rioters hurling gasoline bombs and chunks of marble during Greece's largest anti-austerity demonstration in six months. The protests were part of a 24-hour general strike, the latest test for Greece's nearly four-month-old government and the spending cuts it plans to push through.

The brief but intense clashes by several hundred rioters among the 60,000 people protesting in Athens occurred a day after anti-austerity protests rocked the Spanish capital.

In Madrid, thousands of angry protesters again swarmed as close as they could get Wednesday night to Parliament, watched by a heavy contingent of riot police. The demonstrators cut off traffic on one of the city's major thoroughfares at rush hour.

The protesters chanted for the release of 34 people detained Tuesday night in clashes that injured 64 others. They demanded elections to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his conservative government, which has imposed cutbacks and tax hikes, deepening the gloom in a country struggling with recession and unemployment of nearly 25 percent, the highest among the 17 eurozone nations.

Spain's central bank warned the country's economy continues to shrink “significantly,” sending the Spanish stock index tumbling and its borrowing costs rising.

The turmoil ended weeks of relative calm and optimism among investors that the eurozone might have turned a corner. Across Europe, stock markets fell as well.

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