Police yesterday arrested a 25-year-old gunman after he had been holding three employees hostage at a psychiatric clinic in Glyfada, southern Athens.

The hostage situation lasted for about four hours but came to an end after anti-terrorist police raided the office area where he was keeping the three women.

The gunman, Panayiotis Hadzidakis, was, according to sources, a drug addict who been treated at the clinic.

Negotiators and clinic psychologists attempted to diffuse the situation but no demands were made by the gunman apart from asking police to leave the scene.

No shots were fired in the raid, police said, as they later discovered that the two guns Hadzidakis was holding were fake. The gunman is said to have filmed the incident on a video camera with the intention of selling the footage to a television network.