Horseplay kills Olympic guard
The nephew of Greece’s top police counterterrorism official was fatally shot in the head while horsing around with two cadet police officers early yesterday at the Olympic mountain cycling venue on Mount Parnitha. Antonios Syros, a 25-year-old professional soldier on a five-year contract, was on guard duty at a children’s summer camp, now used to house Games officials inside the Metochi venue, between 10 p.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. yesterday. At around 4 a.m. a patrol of two third-year police cadets – identified as Christos Chloros and Constantinos Tombras, both 20 – passed by his post and stopped for a chat. A police statement said Chloros and Syros, who was holding Tombras’s handgun, «jokingly» pointed guns at each other’s heads. Chloros pulled the trigger, apparently unaware that the safety catch was off, and killed the soldier. Both cadets were arrested, and an inquiry is under way. The victim’s uncle is Gen. Stelios Syros.
