Five policemen were suspended yesterday for ignoring the calls of a man who suspected that his missing wife was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in Athens last week.

Police Chief Vassilis Tsiatouras ordered the suspension of the officers after an internal investigation revealed that the five policemen, working at police stations in Aghia Varvara and Aegaleo, ignored the man’s efforts to find his wife.

The 47-year-old Pakistani national suspected that his wife was the woman hit by a truck on Kifissos Avenue last Wednesday. Her dismembered body was found by passing drivers. The man ended up going to police headquarters and asking officers there to take DNA samples from the couple’s two young children in order to confirm that the dead woman was indeed his wife.

The five policemen are due to face a disciplinary hearing, where their final punishment will be decided.