France, October 28: Gunmen fired a hail of bullets at police officers, injuring six, as they rode by a police station on a motorcycle.
One officer was in serious condition after being shot by the unidentified gunmen in a northern Athens suburb, authorities said today.
Other officers were hurt by bullets or by flying glass.
Leftist and anarchist groups have launched a series of attacks against police, businesses, public institutions and politicians after a policeman shot dead a teenager in Athens in December, prompting Greece’s worst riots in decades.
“Two unknown assailants riding a motorcycle shot and injured police officers outside the police station of Aghia Pareskevi,” said a police official who declined to be named.
The policeman now in serious condition was guarding the station at the time of the attack.
All six were taken to hospital, as well as a shocked passer-by who passed out after witnessing the attack, the official said.
The far-left Rebel Sect urban guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the killing of a Greek anti-terrorism policeman in June, the worst attack since the December riots.
The Socialists swept to power on October 4, and new Civil Protection Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis has said that combating resurgent guerrilla groups is his top priority.
This week, a little-known Greek guerrilla group claimed responsibility for makeshift bomb attacks outside the party offices of a minister and a deputy minister last week in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
The Council for the Deconstruction of Order said in a statement posted on a leftist website that it planted the bombs to protest the new Socialist government’s efforts to crack down on extremist groups.
—Agencies