An 89-year-old gunman is said to have opened fire at two government buildings in Athens on Tuesday, wounding at least four people in a rare outbreak of violence that roiled Greece’s tightly controlled gun landscape and ended with his arrest hours later.
Police said the suspect first stormed a social security office, went to the fourth floor and fired, hitting an employee in the leg. Officials said the gunman warned a worker to duck before pulling the trigger, although he did not appear to specifically target the worker he struck.
“He went inside, went to the fourth floor, raised his gun and told one worker to duck and hit another,” Alexandros Varveris, head of Greece’s National Social Security Fund, told state broadcaster ERT radio.
The wounded man was treated at the scene, but the suspect fled and later opened fire again at a courthouse in another part of the city, where several people were injured.
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People gather outside a courthouse in Athens after a gunman opened fire, leaving several injured on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (Petros Giannakouris/AP)
Authorities said at least three women, all court employees, suffered minor injuries from ricocheting bullets, while media reported that a fourth woman was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
People leave a courthouse after a gunman opened fire and injured several people in Athens on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (Petros Giannakouris/AP)
Surveillance video broadcast by local media showed a man calmly walking down the street with a short-barreled shotgun in his hand.
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Police later arrested the suspect near the city of Patra, about 210 kilometers west of Athens, and recovered the weapon.
A police officer speaks to a woman outside a courthouse in Athens after a gunman opened fire on April 28, 2026, wounding several people. (Petros Giannakouris/AP)
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The motive remains unclear, although state media reported that the man left documents at the courthouse outlining his grievances.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
