Fresh smash-and-grab attempted at previously hit Athens shop

Police in Athens are looking for the driver and passenger of a vehicle that tried to smash into a store in the northern suburb of Nea Filadelfia for the second time in just over 24 hours in the early hours of Tuesday.

The incident took place at around 3 a.m. when a police patrol saw a car trying to drive through the window of a vegetable shop that had been targeted a day earlier. In that attack, the assailants smashed through the window with a car and made off with the money in the till.

In Tuesday’s attack, the perpetrators were interrupted by the police officers, who fired a warning shot into the air when one of the would-be burglars pulled out a gun.

The assailants drove off, prompting a manhunt.

There has been a spate of similar smash-and-grab burglaries in which a vehicle was used to crash into businesses in different parts of the capital in recent days, though it is not clear whether they have been carried out by the same people or gang.