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Gunman seriously wound police officer in Greece
Greek police say a weapon gunmen have fired at police in Athens was used last year in an attack claimed by a domestic extremist group that has previously targeted the US Embassy.
- AP
- Published: 10:22 January 5, 2009
Athens: Greek police say a weapon gunmen have fired at police in Athens was used last year in an attack claimed by a domestic extremist group that has previously targeted the US Embassy.
A policeman was critically wounded in Monday's pre-dawn attack.
An automatic rifle and a 9mm caliber weapon were used. Police said ballistics tests showed the 9mm caliber weapon matched one used in an April 30, 2007, attack on a police station in an Athens suburb. That attack caused no injuries but was claimed by the far-left Revolutionary Struggle group.
The group had also claimed an attack in which a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the front of the US Embassy in Jan. 2007, causing damage but no injuries.
Monday's pre-dawn attack was aimed at a riot police unit stationed outside the Culture Ministry in the centre of the capital, police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis said.
The officer was being treated for two gunshot wounds and was undergoing surgery in a central Athens hospital, Panos Efstathiou, head of the Health Ministry's operations centre, said on state television.
After the attack, patrol cars and riot police buses blocked access to much of Exarchia and forensic investigators in white coveralls collected evidence from the site of the shooting.
Stathis said several people were detained as police searched for the attacker.
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