Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-11-04

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Bus - Hijacking - Japanese tourists (adds)

[02] Bus - Hijacking - Japanese tourists

[01] Bus - Hijacking - Japanese tourists (adds)

A distraught man who killed his mother-in-law and another man early Saturday before hijacking a tourist coach carrying 35 people, 33 of whom are Japanese tourists, continued to keep police at bay in the early afternoon.

A 2 p.m. (local time) the tourist coach was headed towards the Epidavros area in the northeast Peloponnese, southwest of Athens, as police helicopters and patrol cars followed.

No information has as yet been issued on the names of the Japanese tourists or the tour operator that booked their vacation.

Police identified the suspect as 48-year-old Christos Kentiras, a body shop mechanic, who earlier in the day shot and killed his mother-in-law and another man in the village of Galata, near the small resort isle of Poros. The coach belongs to the ?Panolympia? firm and was carrying the Japanese tourists on a three-day excursion in Greeces Argolida prefecture.

[02] Bus - Hijacking - Japanese tourists

A distraught man who killed his mother-in-law and another in-law early Saturday before hijacking a tourist coach carrying 35 Japanese vacationers ordered the vehicles driver to reverse direction and head west towards the town of Corinth at around 1 p.m (local time).

According to police, the suspect, identified as 48-year-old Christos Kentiris, earlier in the day shot and killed his mother-in-law and one of his wife's relatives in the village of Galata, southwest of Athens in the Peloponnese. The man reportedly blamed his wifes relatives for his marital problems.

A large police contingent was following the bus while officers attempted to negotiate with the gunman, who also shot at police. The gunman ordered the bus to head back to Corinth at a tollway station on the Corinth-Athens national highway and after initially heading for the Greek capital.

In conversations with police and TV reporters, he demanded to be allowed to reach Athens in order to justify his actions to the media.

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