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Shots fired as bus hijacked
A GREEK public bus with about 27 people aboard was hijacked today and shots were fired at police who surrounded it on the outskirts of Athens, police and bus company officials said.Police did not say how many passengers were aboard the vehicle, but a bus company official said about 27 people were believed to be in the vehicle, which was surrounded by patrol cars and ambulances at a stop 17km from the city centre on the outskirts of eastern Athens. Initial reports said that at least two people apparently armed with shotguns apparently took control of the bus just before dawn. The bus driver managed to escape, according to officials. Reporters on the scene heard what sounded like two shotgun blasts about an hour after the bus was taken over about 6:00am (01500 AEDT) outside a nightclub. At least two shots had been fired at police who arrived at the scene shortly after the takeover. "The demand of the perpetrators is for us to give them a bus driver. We are letting police deal with this," Nikos Koutsogeorgas, president of the public bus company, told Athens' Skai radio. "It seems the bus driver's action to abandon the bus was positive." The bus was on a route from the town of Marathon, east of Athens, to the city centre when it was hijacked just before dawn at a stop in the suburb of Geraka. The bus stop was on a highway that was renovated for the Olympic Games and used for the Marathon race, the 42km course from ancient Marathon to central Athens. Posted by: tipper 2004-12-15 |
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