Long queues form at Greek banks and shops

Stunned Greeks faced shuttered banks, long supermarkets lines, and overwhelming uncertainty as a breakdown in talks between Athens and its international creditors plunged the country deep into crisis.

With Greece’s bailout expiring today and an IMF payment falling due at the same time, prime minister Alexis Tsipras pleaded by phone with European officials to extend the programme until a referendum on Sunday on its future terms.

The frantic efforts to secure Greece’s place within the eurozone followed a dramatic weekend. Tsipras’s decision, early on Saturday, to put the aid package to a popular vote took the lenders and some of Tsipras’s own negotiating team by surprise. It also pushed Greece towards defaulting on €1.6bn due to the International Monetary Fund.