Three hurt in bungled bank robbery
A botched bank robbery in the center of Athens yesterday resulted in three people being injured following a series of shootouts, police said, as new crime data confirmed that crime in Greece is on the rise. Just before 1 p.m., four armed men entered a National Bank of Greece branch on Solonos Street in the city center while an accomplice waited outside, police said. After emptying two of the bank’s tills, the men then attempted to get away by foot but were followed by the bank guard on duty. The guard caught up with the gang but was slightly injured when they began shooting at him. The robbers then ran onto Panepistimiou Street, where a second shootout occurred with teams of police that had just arrived at the scene. The armed men then forced a driver out of his parked vehicle and attempted to drive away, but were blocked by a police patrol car, at which point another exchange of fire followed, injuring one of the gang members. A 73-year-old man who was in the area was also injured by a bullet fired in the fray. Neither of the men suffered serious injuries. The injured suspect, 28-year-old Yiannis Dimitrakis, was taken to a hospital, where he was being kept under heavy police guard. Sources said that he is known to police because of alleged links with anarchist groups. The remaining four ganf members then split up and ran away in different directions, escaping from police but empty-handed as the injured suspect was left holding the 49,000-euro haul. Police also found in his bag two semi-automatic guns, three hand grenades, two balaclavas and a stopwatch. Police sources said the gang was very heavily armed for this sort of crime. Meanwhile, data released yesterday by the Public Order Ministry showed that the number of murders across the country shot up in 2005 from the previous year, as did incidents involving fraud. The ministry said that 825 robberies were solved last year, involving 587 Greek suspects and 300 foreigners. It added that 204 murders were solved, leading to the arrest of 195 Greeks and 91 foreigners.
