An armed man has injured at least five people in the Greek capital Athens. The gunman opened fire with a shotgun on social services workers and a courthouse. This was reported by the Greek broadcaster ‘ERTNews’. The suspected perpetrator, an 89-year-old man, is still on the run, police and local media report.
Luka Geets
Journalist at HLN
Source: Reuters
According to police, the man opened fire with a shotgun in an office of the Greek social security institution EFKA. An employee was injured in the leg.
The gunman then took a taxi to a courthouse in the city. Inside, he fired several shots, slightly wounding four female clerks, police and judicial sources said.
The man left the shotgun and some letters addressed to newspapers at the scene of the incident and fled on foot, media report. “Four women working in the small claims department were slightly injured,” Stratis Dounias, head of the court staff union in Athens, told public broadcaster ERT.
The 89-year-old perpetrator fled after the facts. Greek police have launched a large-scale manhunt to identify and arrest him.
Police have not yet said anything about a possible motive. Greek media report that the suspect is a garbage collector from the Athens region. Witnesses describe the man as very old, tall and slim.
