Five police officers and one cadet were shot during an armed attack against a police station in the Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi, authorities announced early on Wednesday.
All six were admitted to Athens hospitals, two of them in serious but not critical condition, along with a civilian suffering from shock after witnessing the attack.
The attack occurred shortly before 10 p.m. on Tuesday night when a group of unidentified persons on motorbikes passed outside the police station in Pentelis street and fired several rounds using an automatic weapon before fleeing the scene.
The bullets hit five police men and a woman cadet training as a special guard, who also suffered the most serious injuries and was submitted to lengthy surgery.
A police man that was shot in the belly and rushed to the 401 Military Hospital was reported to be out of the danger, though doctors are keeping him under close observation in case there are complications.
Police said they had found and were investigating three motorbikes to determine whether they were used during the attack, left outside the Halandri metro station.
Public Safety Minister Mihalis Chryssohoidis visited both the site of the attack and the injured police officers in hospital, afterwards stressing that the attack against them had been “cowardly, murderous and 100 percent a terrorist act”.
He condemned the attack as the worst sort of attack on society.
“Violence, especially murderous violence, is the worst enemy of society. Blind violence against 20-year-old youths is despicable and heinous,” he underlined, calling on the public to “rally around democracy and protect it”.
The Minister committed to taking all possible action to find the perpetrators.
“These murdering bullies will be arrested and turned over to justice,” the minister underlined in statements after his visit to the injured.