A shooter targeted a social security building and a courthouse in downtown Athens this Tuesday, leaving multiple individuals injured, according to Greek officials. Law enforcement launched a manhunt for the perpetrator, identified by local news outlets as an 89-year-old male.
Initial reports indicate the assailant used a shotgun at a social security branch in the capital’s heart, striking a staff member. Arriving officers provided medical aid to the victim, though the attacker managed to escape.
The same individual is believed to have later discharged his weapon on the ground level of a judicial building elsewhere in central Athens. Police confirmed several additional injuries at that location and noted the recovery of the shotgun.
Video from the state-run network ERT captured paramedics moving at least three victims from the courthouse into emergency vehicles.
The shooter’s specific intentions remain uncertain. However, ERT reported that the gunman discarded several document-filled envelopes following the courthouse assault, claiming the papers explained his motivations.
Alexandros Varveris, director of the national pension agency EFKA, stated the man reached the fourth floor of the Kerameikos district office. He reportedly warned one worker to “duck” before firing. That shot struck a different employee in the leg. Varveris noted the suspect concealed the firearm beneath a trenchcoat.
“He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said that it didn’t appear that the gunman had specifically targeted the employee he hit.
First responders applied a tourniquet to the injured staffer before hospital transport.
Incidents of gun violence are uncommon in Greece, a nation where weapons are legal but subject to strict licensing.
