Greek police arrest 89-year-old after double shooting injures five in Athens

Police in Greece arrested an 89-year-old man after two shooting attacks in central Athens left five people wounded and exposed how rare such violence remains in a country with tightly regulated firearms.

The first attack happened at a branch of the EFKA social security agency in Kerameikos, where Alexandros Varveris, the agency’s head, said the suspect went to the fourth floor, told one employee to duck and then shot another in the leg. Police applied a tourniquet at the scene before the wounded worker was taken to hospital, Varveris said. The second shooting followed about 5km away at a courthouse in Ambelokipi, where the gunman injured four more people before fleeing.

State broadcaster ERT said the five victims, a man and four women, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Stratis Dounias, head of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, said four women working at the small claims court were slightly injured. Television footage showed ambulance crews removing at least three people from the court building.

Reuters reported that the suspect left the shotgun at the courthouse, along with letters addressed to newspapers, before fleeing on foot. Greek media described him as a garbage collector from the Athens area, and surveillance footage reportedly showed him carrying what appeared to be a short-barrelled shotgun.

Police later arrested the man in Patra, about 200km from Athens, at a hotel near the bus station, according to ERT and local media. Officers found him carrying a second weapon, a loaded .38 calibre revolver. The motive remained unclear.

The case is unusual in Greece, where gun violence is relatively rare and firearm ownership is permitted but tightly controlled. The fact that an elderly suspect allegedly moved between two public institutions, used two weapons and was able to travel far from Athens before his arrest is likely to intensify scrutiny of how firearms are monitored and how authorities respond once an armed suspect has already fled the capital.