More than 5,000 demonstrators marched peacefully through central Athens on Saturday to commemorate the 34th anniversary of a student uprising against the country’s military rulers.

The march, which has often been marred by street violence in previous years, began at the National Technical University of Athens where students staged a pro-democracy uprising in 1973 that was crushed by the military junta then ruling Greece.

Holding banners painted with slogans against NATO and the USA and chanting anti-American slogans, the demonstrators marched to the US Embassy in torrential rain.

Some 8,000 police were deployed to guard against violence, about half of them guarding embassies, foreign companies and banks that are often targeted during the march with firebombs and paint.

Police said that minor scuffles broke out at a corresponding rally in Thessaloniki, where authorities made one arrest and detained three others. There were no reports of injuries.