Gang in police’s crosshairs over assault on forest cleanup volunteers

Police in Athens are reportedly closing in on a gang of youths who allegedly attacked two volunteers participating in a forest cleanup on the Greek capital’s Mount Parnitha over the weekend, leaving them in need of hospital care.

According to reports, investigators are looking at CCTV footage from the nearby area and talking to witnesses who may be able to identify the youths who drove into the forest and assaulted the two volunteers as they were settling down in rudimentary shelters for the night following a long day of clearing trash from the forest and ahead of another day of the same on Sunday.

The volunteers were on the western slopes of Mount Parnitha as part of a bigger crew in a three-day cleanup organized by Save Your Hood, a non-governmental organization that carries out initiatives for greener cities. The rest of the team was at a different but nearby location at the time of the incident, reports have indicated.

The head of the group and one of the people who helped the volunteers immediately after the attack, Dimitris Sfakianopoulos, has claimed that the gang of some seven or eight youths first approached the two volunteers with questions about who they were and why they were on the mountain. They allegedly departed without further incident only to return shortly after and launch their assault. 

The volunteers were kicked, punched and stabbed in what they have described as an unprovoked attack.

Their assailants allegedly fled when they realized there were other people in the area and they were responding to the victims’ cries for help.

Police are reportedly investigating the possibility that the youths are part of a gang that uses the area to conduct drug deals or other illegal activities, or that the attack was a show of force intended for social media.