Attack on German Ambassador's house in Athens

(Vatican Radio) Unknown assailants raked the front of the German ambassador’s house with automatic gunfire here in Athens in the early hours of this morning. No-one was hurt in the attack, but officials worry about a resurgence of crisis-fuelled domestic terrorism.

Listen to John Carr's report...

According to the police, four men on motorcycles pulled up in front of the German ambassador’s house in a northern Athens suburb in the middle of the night. One of the attackers unslung an AK-47 automatic rifle and sprayed the front of the house with it. He later fired into the air to deter and pursuers. The police found at least sixty spent cartridges in the house grounds and in the walls.

The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, telephoned his regrets to German chancellor Angela Merkel. The gunfire seems to have been aimed at no particular person but at the symbol of Germany, which many Greeks believe is responsible for their country’s seemingly endless economic crisis. Merkel herself has been portrayed as a hate figure, complete with Hitler moustache, by bloggers and cartoonists here in Greece.

AK-47 automatic rifles are disturbingly common in Greece. They’re in the hands of extremist political groups as well as the underworld, so it’s sometimes hard to figure out the perpetrators of a particular shoot-up.

The attack on the German ambassador’s house stirred memories of about twenty years ago, when the now-defunct 17 November urban guerrilla group shot at the same house with a bazooka, doing some damage to the roof. This time, though, the bullets could have come from either the far left or far right, both of which demonize what they call German domination of Greece.