Greece in Brief

CAROLER MUGGINGS

Three caught in Thessaloniki

Two minors and an adult were being held by police in Thessaloniki yesterday on suspicion of mugging children who had been singing carols in the northern port city. Police said that the three suspects, aged 15, 16 and 22, were seen threatening a group of six children in the Retziki area of Thessaloniki. Some of the children’s parents who witnessed the mugging chased the trio, apprehending the two teenagers. Police arrested the third suspect shortly after. Officers said that during questioning, the suspects admitted to taking 50 euros from another group of children after threatening them with a knife.

Armed robberies

A pair of armed robbers targeted a patisserie in Thessaloniki shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve, fleeing with some 9,000 euros, police said. According to the manager of the store, the two masked perpetrators threatened him into handing over the week’s takings at gunpoint before fleeing with the cash. Later yesterday two armed assailants held up a gas station a few kilometers outside the northern port city. According to police, the two assailants, who had been wearing motorcycle helmets, threatened the gas station employee at knifepoint. They fled on a motorcycle with an undetermined sum. In Meteora, central Greece, another two robbers fled with 150 euros after threatening the manager of a street kiosk at gunpoint.

Suspected suicide

A 68-year-old priest found dead in his car, with wounds from shotgun pellets to his head and chest, probably committed suicide, police in Ioannina, northwestern Greece, said on Thursday. The cleric was found in the driving seat of his car, which had been parked on the side of a country road linking Ioannina to Trikala, with a shotgun lying next to him, police said.

Emergency landing

An Egyptian Airlines aircraft which had been en route to Germany from Cairo yesterday lunchtime was forced to conduct an emergency landing at Athens International Airport after the plane developed engine problems. The aircraft had been flying over the eastern Aegean, with 100 passengers on board, when the problem arose. The pilots requested permission for an emergency landing, which was executed safely.

A young woman whose naked body was found in a children’s playground in Ano Patissia, near central Athens, early yesterday morning had been struck on the head with a large stone or brick, according to police.

The woman, who is believed to have been aged between 20 and 25, appeared to have been undressed by her attacker or attackers though police did not determine whether she had been raped. Officers found the woman’s clothes, bag and cell phone scattered around her. A coroner said that she died at around 3 a.m.

At around the same time in the district of Aghios Panteleimonas, also near the city center, four Afghan immigrants are alleged to have mugged two Bangladeshi brothers at knifepoint, fatally injuring one of them. The victim had refused to hand over his wallet, prompting one of the assailants to knife him in the stomach, according to the surviving sibling. Police had not traced the attackers by late yesterday.