The attempted eviction of a 68-year-old tenant from a house in Nea Makri, eastern Attica, yesterday afternoon led to a bloody shootout involving two deaths.

Christos Malenos is alleged to have “lost control” following the arrival at his home of two police officers, a court-appointed bailiff and a representative of the property owner, identified as Yiannis Stavroulakis, 60. Malenos allegedly ducked into an adjacent room and returned with a 38-millimeter shotgun which he fired at Stavroulakis, killing him instantly.

One of the two officers then fired back at Malenos with his service shotgun, killing him as well. The second officer, a trainee, had been unarmed.

Malenos is alleged to have owed the property owner some 4,000 euros in unpaid rent. He is said to have had an argument with Stavroulakis about his alleged debts at the end of last week.

Police were yesterday questioning Malenos’s wife, who was on the property at the time of the shooting.