‘Real hell’ predicted if Greece leaves euro

In Athens, the homeless are on the streets in growing numbers, soup kitchens feed twice as many people as a year ago, and the poor are rummaging in rubbish bins in search of scrap to sell.

Greece is close to breaking point, but this is just a foretaste of the nightmare of unrest, hunger and anarchy that may engulf the nation if it is forced out of the euro.

If the exact impact of such a move is hard to nail down — newly issued drachmas, devalued by up to 70%, runaway inflation, a banking meltdown, a collapse in trade — the implications for ordinary Greeks are even harder to predict.