European shares have opened sharply lower following dramatic falls in Asia that saw Tokyo's Nikkei index fall 11%.
Global falls have largely wiped out the gains earlier in the week, as fears of recession cancelled out any optimism from the banking rescue package.
London's FTSE 100 opened 5% lower while the Cac 40 in Paris was down 6%.
On Wednesday, New York's Dow Jones index saw its worst one-day percentage fall on Wednesday since October 1987, closing almost 8% down
Shares in Hong Kong shed 7.6%. Australian, South Korea and Indian indexes all fell by at least 4%.