Lefteris Economou, an experienced police official who was the force’s press spokesman during the campaign that led to the dismantling of the November 17 terrorist group in 2002, was yesterday appointed head of the Greek Police. The Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) chose Economou to replace Vassilis Tsiatouras who stepped down last month after police arrested several members of a left-wing party and journalists during a sweep in the central district of Exarchia. The arrests were subsequently described as “unacceptable” by Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis.

Police in Thessaloniki yesterday were seeking five gunmen who opened fire on a police patrol car on the outskirts of the city early yesterday. The patrol car had approached two suspect vehicles that had been parked outside a store, indicating that the occupants should step outside for an inspection. But three suspects got out of the cars and started firing shotguns at the officers. Then another two suspects emerged from the store and also started firing at the patrol car. A car chase ensued but the suspects managed to elude arrest. There were no reports of any injuries.

Unidentified arsonists early yesterday hurled petrol bombs at an office of Synaspismos, the largest party in the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), in the central Athens district of Exarchia, smashing the glass facade of the premises and starting a fire but causing no injuries. The blaze was quickly doused by firefighters. In another pre-dawn incident, in the Gyzi district of the capital, a homemade firebomb made of gas canisters detonated outside the building housing the supporters’ club of Athens soccer team Panathinaikos, causing minor damage but no injuries.

Police in the Peloponnesian town of Kalamata said yesterday that they had detained nine Albanian immigrants believed to have been importing large quantities of drugs from their homeland and selling it on the Greek market. Officers confiscated 11 kilos of cannabis at the home of one suspect and smaller quantities of cannabis and cocaine at the homes of the other suspects.

An unarmed suspect made off with a large sum of money yesterday after passing a threatening note to cashiers at a branch of Piraeus Bank in the central Athens district of Ambelokipi, police said. According to witnesses, the suspect made his getaway on foot.

Three people died near the central town of Karditsa yesterday in two separate road accidents. In the first accident, which occurred in the early afternoon, an 83-year-old man and his 80-year-old wife were killed instantly when their car veered off a country road near the village of Palamas into an irrigation ditch. The second fatality involved a 39-year-old motorcyclist who was killed when he collided with a car on the national road a few kilometers outside Karditsa.