Police in Greece’s capital were looking for a gunman, reportedly aged 89, who opened fire Tuesday in a social security office and a courthouse in central Athens, wounding no less than 4 people.
Armed with a shotgun, the gunman initially opened fire on the social security office, wounding an worker, police said. Cops who arrived on the scene treated the person, however the gunman fled the scene.
Local media aired security camera footage that it said was from an area store near the social security office, which showed a person walking calmly across the road carrying what appears to be a short-barreled shotgun in his right hand.
The identical man was suspected of later opening fire on the bottom floor of a court constructing in one other a part of central Athens, with several people wounded there, police said, adding that authorities had found the shotgun.
Television footage showed ambulance crews transporting no less than three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.
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The pinnacle of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, Stratis Dounias, said that initial information indicated that the person had shot at the ground inside one in every of the offices within the court constructing. A minimum of three female court employees were barely wounded by ricocheting shotgun pellets, while media reports said that a fourth female worker was transported to a hospital without physical injuries.
FILE– People gather outside a courthouse after a gunman opened fire leaving several people wounded in Athens, Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
The motive for the shooting was unclear. State broadcaster ERT said that the gunman had reportedly left envelopes with documents after the shooting on the courthouse, saying those were the explanations for his actions.
Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund’s offices within the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an worker to duck. His shot hit one other worker, who was wounded within the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trenchcoat under which he had hidden the shotgun.
“He went in, went as much as the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an worker to duck and hit one other one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said the gunman didn’t appear to specifically goal the worker he hit.
The wounded worker was transported to a hospital, after police applied a tourniquet to his leg on the scene.
Gun violence is comparatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated.
© 2026 The Canadian Press