More than 90 rounds from a Kalashnikov rifle were fired at the scene of a mob-style execution of a 44-year-old man, who was gunned down in front of a petrol station in the Athens district of Neos Kosmos early on Sunday.
Police do not rule out that more shots were fired to ensure the target would not get away, with the precise number to be established once the forensic investigation is completed. One "stray" bullet broke a window of a nearby apartment building, luckily without injuring anyone.
The murder is believed to be a contract killing, while the victim also had a Glock pistol, assault rifle and ammunition in his car but did not get a chance to use them. The victim's car was bullet proof but the assailants surprised him as he was exiting the petrol station and he did not have time to get back inside the vehicle and shut the door.
The victim was known to the police and considered a high-ranking member of a Greek criminal organisation known as the "Greek Mafia". He had been charged with robbery, attempted murder and was implicated in other armed attacks. He had been previously shot in 2018, at which time he was seriously injured but had survived.
The Attica homicide department is investigating the case in collaboration with the Extortion Department and has collected a great deal of evidence from CCTV cameras in Neos Kosmos, both on the day of the attack and the days leading up to it.
Police believe that there were at least three assailants, who got away in a car that was later found burned in Dafni. Police are also looking for a motorcycle that may belong to a "support team" and which left the crime scene at speed immediately after the execution. They consider that the murder ends a round of murders that began in 2017, with successive killings of various members of Greece's criminal underground.