Police and coast guard officials are on standby today at Ouranoupolis and Ierissos, the two port connections to Mount Athos in northern Greece, following clashes yesterday with a crowd of demonstrators who tried to force their way into the monastic community to join a group of rebel monks for an annual religious celebration.

Around 30 protesters tried to break through a police cordon and gain access to Mount Athos to express support for the ultra-Orthodox monks who have been illegally occupying the Esphigmenou Monastery since 2002 when they fell out with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate. Supporters of the zealot monks, who were declared schismatic for violently opposing attempts to mend a rift between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, have tried to break into the monastery every year since 2002, always ahead of Ascension Day, celebrated 40 days after Easter.