According to initial information, more than 60 bullets were collected by the anti-terrorist squad, luckily they did not cause any injuries or significant damage to the Ambassador's home which is located on Ethnikis Antistaseos Street.
Reports say that the assailants used Kalashnikov rifles, while the police guard at the diplomat's home said that he saw four persons shooting sporadically without having a specific target. Bullets were found embedded in the steel gate.
A report on defencenet concludes that the assailants must have had some kind of support such as a driver who was waiting nearby in a parked car and that following the attack the assailants could have used this automobile to make a quick getaway, however a report on STAR channel (as seen in the video below) said that they may have used two motorbikes. The same report also reveals that the policeman guarding the German Ambassador's residence did not have time to react to the shootings because he was afraid that if he opened fire against the assailants, then someone in the area could have been injured in the process.
Whatever the case, authorities arrived immediately to the Ambassador's home, cordoned off the area and a police investigation began.
Soon after, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was informed by Citizens Protection Minister Nikos Dendias, and from what has been reported so far they have both spoken with the Ambassador.
Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos also strongly condemned the attack, and after contacting the Ambassador as well, he issued the following press release:
"The Greek government expresses its outrage and outright condemnation of today's cowardly terrorist act with the only aim to damage Greece's image abroad, a few days before Greece's assumption of the EU presidency," Venizelos told the German ambassador. "The immediate mobilization of the Greek police, which gives an effective and coordinated battle against terrorism, will soon bring the perpetrators before the Greek justice," he added.The German ambassador’s residence has been a target for terrorists since May 1999, when members of November 17 fired a rocket at the building.
The last thing that the government of Antonis Samaras needs, however, is to open a new front of a terrorism sort (with a German target) on the eve before Greece takes over the EU rotating presidency.
Sources in Greek - defencenet, Kathimerini