Two foreign laborers, a 22-year-old Syrian and a 23-year-old Egyptian, were killed instantly yesterday after coming into contact with a high-voltage electricity pylon in the corner of their worksite near the Cretan port of Hania. The pair had been working on the second floor of the half-built structure when a metal rod being carried by the Syrian touched the high-voltage pylon. Seeing his colleague convulsed by the electrical current, the Egyptian instinctively reach out to help, but the current passed on killing him as well. Police were yesterday seeking the site supervisor for questioning.

A 21-year-old man arrested following an armed robbery on a supermarket in Piraeus in April was part of a three-member gang that raided a number of supermarkets in Attica, stealing 440,000 euros, police said yesterday. Officers revealed that the man’s two accomplices evaded arrest at the time. One has since been found dead while the other was arrested last month and has been charged with murder as well as robbery. All three have been identified as Albanian nationals.

Firefighters were able to bring under control last night four large forest fires on Crete, in the Peloponnese, Fthiotida and Evia. None of the fires, which burned mostly areas of low vegetation, threatened homes. No injuries were reported.

Three mayors from western Thessaloniki yesterday demanded that the land on which the former Diana paper mill stands should be turned into a park and not sold to private investors. The 2.2-hectare plot of land has been sold for 1.64 million euros to a foreign company. The mayors of Polichni, Evkarpia and Stavroupolis said that the government, which sued the previous owners of the site last week for leaving toxic residue on the land, was too slow to react.

A fraud suspect who on Monday managed to escape from the main Attica police headquarters on Alexandras Avenue, central Athens, was found yesterday in the area of Keratsini, a small port near Piraeus. The man, who was not identified, had been due to face a prosecutor on charges of social security fraud and forgery on the day he escaped. No further details about the suspect were released.

The traffic police revealed yesterday that they had recorded 4,500 offenses in Attica between Friday and Sunday. Officers conducted 3,500 drunk-driving tests and found 66 drivers to have been over the legal limit.

Police in Arcadia, in the Peloponnese, are looking for the owners of a cannabis plantation they discovered growing on a mountainside. Officers said they have destroyed 102 cannabis trees that were up to 2 meters high.