NEWS

In Brief

Violent robbery

Police seek pair who fired at them with Kalashnikov Police last night were seeking the two robbers who held up a branch of Eurobank in Corinth earlier in the day, fleeing with 17,000 euros before firing a Kalashnikov assault rifle at officers who chased them in a patrol car. There were no reports of anyone being injured following the raid on the bank, which the robbers entered holding shotguns, nor of any injuries to officers in the patrol car that followed them. At one point during the chase, the robbers stopped the getaway car and got out before opening fire on the police car, causing damage but no injuries. The thieves then jumped back into the vehicle and fled. A police helicopter and patrol cars were scouring the area for signs of the fugitives yesterday. Murder solved Suspect found dead at his home A 33-year-old Romanian woman found dead in her rented apartment in Gyzi, near central Athens, was shot by her 53-year-old estranged partner who later turned the gun on himself, police said yesterday after finding the latter dead in his home in Malesina in Fthiotida prefecture, central Greece. According to police, the 53-year-old Greek visited the 33-year-old, with whom he had a young daughter, at her apartment in Gyzi to convince her to rekindle their relationship. When she refused, he shot her in the head before returning to his home where he turned the gun on himself. Presidential polls Prime Minister George Papandreou and the leader of the main conservative opposition conservative New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, yesterday assured President Karolos Papoulias of their support ahead of presidential elections on February 3. The vote is widely expected to secure a second term for the 80-year-old Papoulias who took office in 2005 and is so far the only declared candidate for the polls. According to the Greek Constitution, the president is elected in a first round of voting if one candidate garners the support of at least 200 of the 300 deputies in Parliament. Ruling PASOK and ND have 251 lawmakers between them. Arson attacks A homemade bomb made of gas canisters started a large fire at a branch of the Carrefour-Marinopoulos supermarket in Argyropouli, southern Attica, when it detonated late on Tuesday. Firemen managed to extinguish the blaze before could wreak serious damage. Early yesterday police reported two more arson attacks, one in coastal Glyfada and another in nearby Terpsithea. In the first incident, vandals doused a sports utility vehicle with American license plates with gas before setting it alight. In the second, three motorcycles were destroyed in the same way. There were no reports of arrests. Laborer injured A laborer from India was in intensive care yesterday after a theoretically controlled explosion carried out by contractors rebuilding a section of the national highway in Fthiotida in central Greece sent a chunk of rock flying through the air and through the roof of the shack where he lives. The explosives had been planted on the side of a mountain with the aim of opening up space for the continuation of the national road. The Indian, an employee at a local fish farm, was seriously injured while several other immigrants living in the same shack were injured.

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