Spate of hijackings hit Greece

ATHENS, Greece -- The hijacking of a bus of Japanese tourists on Saturday in Greece was the latest in a series of hostage-takings to strike the country. Previous cases in recent years:

  •  May, 1999 -- A 25-year-old Albanian hijacks a bus in northern Greece and forces it to be driven to Albania in a 600 km (350 mile) chase. Eight hostages survive the incident but the hijacker and a Greek passenger are killed by police.

  • July, 1999 -- An armed Albanian seizes a bus in northern Greece and demands $780,000 ransom and safe passage to Albania. Greek police, wary of the previous incident, stop the bus in Greece. The hijacker is shot dead when police sneak aboard after a 30-hour standoff.

  • July 26, 2000 -- A Czech gunman boards a charter yacht off the Peloponnese coast and holds its Greek captain and a family of Swiss tourists hostage, demanding to be taken to Morocco. Coastguard sharpshooters kill the gunman and free the hostages unharmed.

  • November 4, 2000 -- A Greek gunman takes 35 Japanese tourists hostage on a bus and threatens to kill them if police try to intervene. The man seizes the bus after a family row in which his mother-in-law and a neighbour were killed. He surrended and freed the hostages unharmed after nine hours.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Hijack over as Greek gunman surrenders
November 4, 2000

Greek Ministry of Public Order (in Greek)

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