Gunman aged 89 on the run after ‘shooting spree’ in central Athens

A gunman has opened fire at a social security office and a courthouse in central Athens, wounding several people.

A police operation is underway to locate the gunman, who Greek media said was an 89-year-old man.

Police said the man was armed with a shotgun and initially opened fire at a social security office in the centre of the Greek capital, wounding an employee.

The same man was suspected of later opening fire on the ground floor of a court building in Athens, with several people wounded there. His motive remains unclear.

Footage from state broadcaster ERT News showed ambulance crews taking at least three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.

ERT said that the gunman reportedly threw envelopes with documents onto the floor after the shooting at the courthouse, saying those were the reasons for his actions.

Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund EFKA, said that the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the fund’s offices in the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an employee ‘to duck’.

His shot hit another employee, who was wounded in the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trenchcoat under which he had hidden the shotgun.

‘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.

The wounded man was taken to the hospital after police applied a tourniquet to his leg at the scene.

Gun violence is relatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated.

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