Forensic experts were yesterday examining a stolen minivan and motorcycle to establish whether they were linked to the murder of a police officer outside the British military attache’s residence in northern Athens on New Year’s Eve.

The vehicles were found abandoned in the northern Athenian suburb of Maroussi, about 3 kilometers from Kifissia, where special guard Haralambos Amanatidis was shot by an unknown number of attackers.

The motorbike used in the murder of the previous British military attache, Brigadier-General Stephen Saunders, on June 8, 2000 by November 17 terrorists, was discovered under similar circumstances in the same area.

Police, however, doubt whether the van, and the motorcycle found inside, were connected to Amanatidis’s murder as they had been abandoned for some time and could not be started up as a result. Officers also played down the significance of a N17 logo which had been spray-painted on a wall some 100 meters from the British military attache’s residence, saying it was not linked to the guard’s murder.