Suspect dead as Greek police raid far-left linked robbers

ATHENS: A suspected bank robber committed suicide Friday as Greek police carried out a raid against a far-left linked gang, a police source said.
Two men arrested in a house in the central coastal town of Nea Anchialos, near Volos, are presumed former accomplices of the far-left Revolutionary Struggle group, whose leader Nikos Maziotis is now in prison.
A third suspect is believed to have committed suicide on Friday to avoid arrest, the source added.
"Two shots were heard from inside the house as the police were encircling the premises," the police source said.
"Two of the men walked out with their hands up, and the third was found dead inside," the officer added.
According to police, the three men in August made off with some 300,000 euros (RM1.2 million) from a bank in Distomo, briefly taking a cashier hostage.
The Revolutionary Struggle group is best known for carrying out a rocket attack against the US embassy in Athens nearly a decade ago.
Maziotis was conditionally released from prison in 2012 and subsequently disappeared.
He was recaptured last July, a few weeks after exploding a car bomb outside a Bank of Greece office in central Athens. Nobody was hurt.
Maziotis' companion and co-leader Paula Roupa, who disappeared with him in 2012, is still at large. – AFP