ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek police arrested one of the country’s most wanted men — a fugitive convicted
of terrorism — during a shootout Wednesday in Athens’ central tourist district that left four people
wounded, authorities said.
It was not immediately clear how the lunchtime shootout began in the crowded Monastiraki district, near
the city’s main Syntagma Square and historic Plaka district.
Police said the wounded included Nikos Maziotis, who has been on the run along with his wife Panagiota
Roupa since 2012 following their release from jail after serving the maximum 18 months in pre-trial
detention. Maziotis was being treated in a central Athens hospital under heavy police guard.
Maziotis and Roupa were convicted in absentia last year and sentenced to 25 years for participation in
Revolutionary Struggle, a group active between 2003 and 2009 and best known for firing a
rocket-propelled grenade into the U.S. Embassy and bombing the Athens Stock Exchange. Neither of those
attacks caused injuries.
Photographs obtained by The Associated Press showed the suspect lying in a pool of blood on a sidewalk,
before he was taken in a police-escorted ambulance to a nearby state hospital.
In January, authorities announced a 1 million-euro ($1.3 million) reward for information leading to each
of the couple’s arrest.
Police said the others wounded were a police officer and two bystanders, both foreign tourists. Witnesses
at the scene told the AP that an Australian tourist was lightly wounded in the leg.
“The whole thing lasted about half an hour. We saw a lot of police running through the streets and later
we heard the shots,” souvenir store employee Makis Tourounias said.
“There wasn’t much panic. Store owners and police were telling people to come indoors. But not everyone
realized what was going on.”