Mark
12-15-2004, 10:01 PM
ATHENS (Reuters) - Two suspected Albanians armed with rifles and dynamite have hijacked a packed passenger bus in Athens and warned they would "light the fuse" if a Thursday deadline for payment of a $1 million (510,000 pound) ransom was not met.
As night fell, hours after the early morning drama began, the gunmen had freed 17 of an original 23 hostages.
But the releases came to an abrupt halt after one hijacker set an 8 a.m. (6 a.m. British time) Thursday deadline for payment of the ransom and vowed not to free any of the remaining hostages -- two men and four women -- until his demand was met.
"I will wait until eight o'clock tomorrow for the money and the driver," the man, who identified himself as "Hassan", said in a mobile phone call from the bus to Greece's Alter TV. "Otherwise I'm going to light the fuse."
"I am not letting anyone else go," he added.
One of the hijackers then fired a warning shot in the direction of a nearby petrol station. No one was injured.
Hundreds of helmeted police officers, snipers in camouflage fatigues and special forces were in position around the blocked blue bus, parked about 10 km (6 miles) east of Athens' centre. Dozens of hostages' relatives gathered at the scene.
The bus was sideways across a road that was the route of the marathon for last August's Athens Olympics.
NO INJURIES
Hassan, speaking fluent Greek, said in a phone call to another TV station that he was Russian.
But Greek and Albanian authorities said they were convinced the hijackers, like some of the hostages, were Albanians.
"One of the released Albanians believes he has identified one of them as an Albanian from Elbasan and the other from Berat," Albanian ambassador to Greece Bashkim Zeneli said, naming cities in central Albania.
Police believe the hijackers may want to portray themselves as Russians rather than Albanians to avoid a backlash against the large Albanian immigrant community in Greece. Russian diplomats said they did not believe the men were Russians.
There were no reports of injuries, but a hostage said the gunmen had explosives either strapped around their waist or in a suitcase they had brought on the bus.
Negotiators talked with the hijackers throughout the day convincing them to release hostages in twos and threes.
PLANE TO RUSSIA
Stella Matara, a hostage still on the bus, told state TV in a mobile phone call that the hijackers wanted a driver to take them to Athens airport and a plane to take them to Russia.
The original driver, a ticket collector and a woman passenger managed to escape from the bus in the first seconds of the hijack when shots were fired during the takeover.
Police believe the driver's presence of mind in jumping from the bus with its keys before the hijackers could stop him headed off what could have been an even more serious situation.
His action, learned from training he received as an Olympic Games driver, ensured the bus was immobilised allowing police to throw a cordon around it.
Relatives crammed a cafe near the bus, glued to a television set transmitting live images of the ordeal.
"I don't care what they are or who they are. I want them to release my wife," said an elderly man among dozens of relatives.
About 1 million of Greece's 11 million population are Albanian immigrants or of recent Albanian descent -- Greece's biggest minority group. Many came from the neighbouring nation to help with building work for Athens Olympics.
Two hijackings by Albanians in 1999 ended with the two hostage-takers being killed by police.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis postponed his departure for a European Union summit in Brussels by one day until Thursday to deal with the crisis.
Source (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=639237)
:o
As night fell, hours after the early morning drama began, the gunmen had freed 17 of an original 23 hostages.
But the releases came to an abrupt halt after one hijacker set an 8 a.m. (6 a.m. British time) Thursday deadline for payment of the ransom and vowed not to free any of the remaining hostages -- two men and four women -- until his demand was met.
"I will wait until eight o'clock tomorrow for the money and the driver," the man, who identified himself as "Hassan", said in a mobile phone call from the bus to Greece's Alter TV. "Otherwise I'm going to light the fuse."
"I am not letting anyone else go," he added.
One of the hijackers then fired a warning shot in the direction of a nearby petrol station. No one was injured.
Hundreds of helmeted police officers, snipers in camouflage fatigues and special forces were in position around the blocked blue bus, parked about 10 km (6 miles) east of Athens' centre. Dozens of hostages' relatives gathered at the scene.
The bus was sideways across a road that was the route of the marathon for last August's Athens Olympics.
NO INJURIES
Hassan, speaking fluent Greek, said in a phone call to another TV station that he was Russian.
But Greek and Albanian authorities said they were convinced the hijackers, like some of the hostages, were Albanians.
"One of the released Albanians believes he has identified one of them as an Albanian from Elbasan and the other from Berat," Albanian ambassador to Greece Bashkim Zeneli said, naming cities in central Albania.
Police believe the hijackers may want to portray themselves as Russians rather than Albanians to avoid a backlash against the large Albanian immigrant community in Greece. Russian diplomats said they did not believe the men were Russians.
There were no reports of injuries, but a hostage said the gunmen had explosives either strapped around their waist or in a suitcase they had brought on the bus.
Negotiators talked with the hijackers throughout the day convincing them to release hostages in twos and threes.
PLANE TO RUSSIA
Stella Matara, a hostage still on the bus, told state TV in a mobile phone call that the hijackers wanted a driver to take them to Athens airport and a plane to take them to Russia.
The original driver, a ticket collector and a woman passenger managed to escape from the bus in the first seconds of the hijack when shots were fired during the takeover.
Police believe the driver's presence of mind in jumping from the bus with its keys before the hijackers could stop him headed off what could have been an even more serious situation.
His action, learned from training he received as an Olympic Games driver, ensured the bus was immobilised allowing police to throw a cordon around it.
Relatives crammed a cafe near the bus, glued to a television set transmitting live images of the ordeal.
"I don't care what they are or who they are. I want them to release my wife," said an elderly man among dozens of relatives.
About 1 million of Greece's 11 million population are Albanian immigrants or of recent Albanian descent -- Greece's biggest minority group. Many came from the neighbouring nation to help with building work for Athens Olympics.
Two hijackings by Albanians in 1999 ended with the two hostage-takers being killed by police.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis postponed his departure for a European Union summit in Brussels by one day until Thursday to deal with the crisis.
Source (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=639237)
:o