A security guard shot and injured a robber yesterday who, it emerged later, was a local lawyer who had tried to hold up a branch of ATEbank in Palaio Faliron, southern Athens, police said.

The incident happened at about 2.25 p.m. when the 34-year-old lawyer pointed a gun at the guard as he was locking up the bank. Officers said the weapon turned out to be a starter’s pistol but while threatening the guard with it, the suspect managed to take the security guard’s gun.

However, the guard fought back and removed the loaded weapon from the unnamed lawyer as he approached the teller windows. The robber then tried to escape but the guard shot him in the leg. A policeman who happened to be passing by at the time arrested the suspect as he tried to get into his getaway car.

The suspect was taken to the Geniko Kratiko Hospital for treatment. Police said that the lawyer had an office in Piraeus but had run up large gambling debts.