An 89-year-old man has been arrested after a series of shotgun attacks on two public buildings in central Athens left several people wounded, triggering a manhunt that ended with his apprehension near the city of Patra, some 130 miles west of the Greek capital.
The attacker, described by witnesses as tall and thin and wearing a blue trench coat concealing his weapon, first opened fire at the National Social Security Fund’s offices in the Kerameikos area of Athens. According to Alexandros Varveris, head of the fund, the man made his way to the fourth floor before raising his shotgun and calling out to one employee to duck — then firing and hitting a colleague in the leg. Varveris told ERT radio that the gunman did not appear to have specifically targeted the employee he wounded. The injured man suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs and was taken to hospital, where his condition was not considered life-threatening.
The same suspect was then believed to have moved to a nearby court building, where he opened fire on the ground floor. At least three female court employees sustained minor wounds from ricocheting shotgun pellets, and a fourth was taken to hospital without physical injuries. Stratis Dounias, head of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, said initial information suggested the man had fired at the floor inside one of the court offices. Footage from state broadcaster ERT News showed ambulance crews transporting multiple injured individuals from the courthouse to waiting vehicles.
The motive for the attacks remained unclear, though the gunman was reported to have thrown envelopes containing documents onto the floor of the courthouse as he fired, stating that the papers explained his reasons. The nature of those documents has not been disclosed by authorities.
Police applied a tourniquet to the wounded social security employee’s leg at the scene before he was taken to a nearby hospital. The suspect was subsequently tracked down and arrested near Patra following a manhunt across the region.
