In Brief
TRAIN ACCIDENT
Two railway employees charged over Friday’s fatal crash in Piraeus Authorities have charged two railway employees over Friday’s accident which resulted in the death of a homeless man and the injury of six other people. A train carriage undergoing maintenance work came off the track in Piraeus when its safety system was deactivated for some unknown reason. The manager on duty at the time of the accident and a train driver have both been charged with manslaughter through negligence. Authorities said investigations are continuing in an attempt to determine the exact causes of the accident. NINE HOLDUPS Police blame eight-member gang Police have broken a gang of thieves believed to be responsible for at least nine armed holdups of service stations and retail stores in southeastern Athens in the last year, authorities said on Saturday. The thieves, who are also believed to have targeted homes, allegedly held up stores in the morning hours or broke into homes while the owners were sleeping, police added. Police found in their possession different weapons, including guns and clubs. The eight suspects, Albanian males aged between 19 and 26, were expected to be charged over the weekend. Relic hunters Five people have been arrested and two more are being sought near Serres in northern Greece on suspicion of illegally digging up antiquities, police said yesterday. The seven suspects also face charges of illegally carrying weapons and explosives. Officers said they seized the equipment used by the group to excavate ancient relics. Bus smash A 27-year-old man was killed when the car he was driving crashed head-on with a public bus in the western Athens suburb of Kamatero. The accident occurred at 5.15 a.m. and no passengers were aboard the bus. The car driver was killed instantly but the bus driver suffered only minor injuries. Graffiti vandals Five young men were arrested in the northern Athens suburb of Neo Iraklion on Saturday night for daubing political slogans on the walls of a school complex in the area. The youths sprayed graffiti slogans about anarchists, Kosovo and the Macedonia name issue on the walls of the schools. Drug arrests Four people were arrested in northern Greece over the weekend on drug-related charges in three separate incidents. In central Thessaloniki, a man and a woman, aged 34 and 27, respectively, were arrested after being found in possession of 3.1 kilos of cannabis. In Pylaia, a man was arrested for possessing small quantities of heroin. Meanwhile in Serres, authorities caught a 43-year-old man with more than 100 ecstasy pills.
