French sailors in dock after flagpole antics
Three sailors from the French navy were in custody in Crete yesterday after allegedly admitting that they took down a Greek flag that had been flying in front of a cathedral in Hania. Police said the three seamen were serving aboard the French frigate Surcouf, which had docked at the base in Souda Bay. Two of the suspects were allegedly arrested in the act of pulling down the flag in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The third man, who ran off with the flag, surrendered to police yesterday. The sailor returned the flag but it had been ripped while being removed from the flagpole. A priest at the Issodia tis Theotokou cathedral near Athinagora Square said that the Church had purchased a replacement flag.