In central Athens on Tuesday, a gunman unleashed gunfire at a social security office and a courthouse, leaving multiple individuals injured, Greek officials reported.
A manhunt was initiated to track down the shooter, whom Greek media identified as an 89-year-old male.
Authorities disclosed that the suspect, wielding a shotgun, first targeted a social security office in the heart of Athens, injuring an employee.
Upon arriving at the scene, police officers provided aid to the wounded man, but the shooter managed to escape.
The same individual is believed to have subsequently fired shots on the ground floor of a courthouse situated in another part of central Athens. Multiple people were injured in this attack as well, according to police, who noted that the weapon had been recovered.
Video footage from the state broadcaster ERT captured ambulance crews transferring at least three wounded individuals from the courthouse into waiting ambulances.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
ERT said the gunman had reportedly thrown 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 known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said that the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security 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. He said that it didn’t appear that the gunman had specifically targeted the employee he hit.
The wounded employee was transported to a 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.
