The Principle of the German School Thessaloniki after being held hostage experience

The Principle of the German School Thessaloniki after being held hostage experience, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

A convicted kidnapper, on leave from prison, entered a school and held three people hostage for an hour before releasing them unharmed. The hostage situation was an exact replica of the one he got convicted of three years ago.



Early this morning the armed man managed to enter the school run jointly by the German and Greek states, in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki and take hostages in exactly the same manner he had done in 2006. Constantinos Arabatzis 55 years old carried an almost exact repeat of the hostage situation three years ago including taking the same person - the principle of the school.



Ararbatzis’s was sentenced to 11 years in prison following his last kidnapping but was recently released after serving just two years. In addition he had also served time in prison in Germany for tax related issues.

The situation however, ended peaceful when police negotiators managed to persuade the man to surrender and release his three hostages who included the principal of the school, the burser and a German national who works as a teacher in the German School in Thessaloniki.

Demotix

Mad, bad and nowhere to be seen

The temperature is rising in Greece as over the last 48 hours there has been a machine gun attack on TV station in the capital, a massive car bomb defused, a professor beaten while giving a talk at the university of Athens. Not to mention yesterday passers by beat a mugger to death here in Thessaloniki and yet another asylum seeker committed suicide while in police custody near Athens airport.

And where are the police during all this? Your guess is as good as mine considering there are far more per head of population here than in most European countries. If they are as successful in dealing with the latest terrorist groups and they were with 17th November revolutionary organisation then we can expect arrests some time around 2038.

Mad, bad and nowhere to be seen.

Breaking news

While I was writing about events on the other side of Europe terrible things were happening on my own doorstep. I was driving back home through Ano Poli when I saw a bunch of police hanging round outside a restaurant there. I jumped off my bike and just as I was about to ask what was happening a poor woman came out screaming with grief. She kept on saying, "why did they have to kill him, why couldn't they have just taken the money?"

The police forensic team was there and everyone entering the building had their feet covered in plastic so I'm guessing it was something more serious than a robbery. I asked the police there what was going on but they were polite but unforthcoming. Nor did any of the passers-by have any real idea what it had happened.