Shots fired at riot police outside PASOK offices in central Athens
Gunshots were fired at a riot police unit stationed outside the offices of PASOK in Exarchia, central Athens, on Monday evening, causing no injuries. It was the second such attack in recent months.
According to police sources, three bullet shells were found on the ground near the junction of Harilaou Trikoupi and Didotou streets.
Two officers in the riot police unit reported seeing a man approach them with his arm held out in front of him before firing five or six times at 7.45 p.m.
The riot police unit guarding the PASOK offices had reportedly been given instructions to take extra safety precautions as there were fears of an imminent attack.
In a written statement, Alternate Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Toskas said the Greek government will not “tolerate anyone placing the lives of police officers and citizens in danger.”
The attack was widely condemned by political parties, with Democratic Alignment (PASOK) leader Fofi Genimata calling for the resignation of Toskas during a debate on Monday night between candidates for the leadership of a new center-left party.
Main opposition New Democracy described the attack as “bullets against democracy” just a few days after an acrimonious debate in Parliament between its leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras over the government’s shortcomings in implementing law and order.
The show put on by Tsipras in Parliament, the statement said, cannot “hide the magnitude of the problems which he himself has provoked.”
To Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis also called for the resignation of the “dangerously incompetent” Toskas. For its part, the government described the attack as a “provocation.”
