Police seek three suspects after Patissia shootout
Police on Friday were looking for three suspects who opened fire at officers of the motorcycle-riding unit DIAS on Thursday night during a car chase that started in the Athens neighborhood of Galatsi, climaxed in Ano Patissia and ended in the suburb of Aghioi Anargyroi without any injuries and with the gunmen eluding arrest.
The chase began when officers tried to stop a stolen Skoda in Galatsi. The driver of the car ignored the police signal and sped off but was cornered a few blocks away in a cul-de-sac in Patissia.
The cornered suspects started firing guns at police, prompting officers to shoot back. They then stopped a passing motorist, forced him out of his van at gunpoint and fled in the new vehicle, followed by police.
The suspects switched cars again on Acharnon Avenue, forcing another motorist out of his vehicle, and resumed their getaway. Police continued the chase but lost the suspects in the suburb of Aghioi Anargyroi.
The final getaway car was found abandoned.
Police were seeking to determine whether the armed suspects are the same as those who opened fire on a group of DIAS officers in the central district of Rendi earlier this month with assault rifles and pistols, killing two of the officers and injuring another two.
A police investigation has indicated that the assailants in that attack were ethnic Greeks from Russia and an Albanian fugitive.
