Camera footage leads to identification of police chief attacker

Police have used footage from a surveillance camera in central Athens to identify the perpetrator of an attack against the head of the capital’s traffic police force last week.

The man is a known member of an anti-establishment group and has been detained several times in the past, according to sources which indicated that officers are close to completing the case file and seeking a warrant for his arrest.

The attack was carried out during a rally last week held by anarchist groups to protest a firebomb attack on a migrant squat in downtown Athens.

In his testimony, Athens Traffic Police Chief Giorgos Diamantopoulos said he had been heading toward his car when a group of around five people stopped to ask him where the rally was heading. The perpetrator broke from the group and punched him, he said.