PARIS, Dec 15 (AFP) - The hijacking of a bus with 25 passengers on board in an Athens suburb early Wednesday by two gunmen reportedly demanding one million euros in ransom is the latest in a number of such attacks around the world over recent years.
Here is a list of the main previous hijackings in the past 16 years:
- Aug 16, 1988: Germany: Following a bank holdup in Gladbeck, near Bremen, two gunmen commandeer a bus, killing a 15-year-old Italian passenger, and flee to the Netherlands where a policeman dies accidentally during a chase. In exchange for the release of 23 of the 25 hostages, police provide the gunmen with a car to return to Germany. Three days later, a hostage is killed during a police assault.
- July 28, 1995: Germany: An armed Israeli takes 26 passengers hostage in a bus in Cologne. He kills the driver and a woman passenger, wounds a policeman and another passenger before taking his own life during a police assault.
- Jan 6, 1998: Germany: Two gunmen hijack a bus with three passengers aboard in Bonn, demanding a 250,000-euro (320,000-dollar) ransom and a plane to head for Brazil. They are overpowered by police in Duesseldorf, 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.
- May 28, 1999: Greece: An Albanian takes the driver and eight Greek passengers of a bus hostage in Sholari, 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Salonika and heads to Albania. The hostage-taker and a passenger die when Albanian police storm the bus some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Tirana.
On July 14, a second Albanian commandeers another bus in northern Greece to go to Albania. He is killed by Greek police.
- May 4, 2000: Japan: A knife-wielding, 17-year-old man takes control of a bus for 15 minutes in suburban Hiroshima, wounding several passengers, including one who died of her wounds.
- June 12, 2000: Brazil: A hostage-taking aboard a bus in Rio, broadcast live on television for more than four hours, leaves the gunman and a passenger dead after police intervene.
- Nov 4, 2000: Greece: 35 people, including 33 Japanese tourists, are taken hostage in the Peloponnese region by a gunman who earlier killed two relatives. A few hours later, the hostage-taker commits suicide and the hostages are freed.
- July 31, 2001: Russia: Some 40 people are taken hostage in a bus near the southwestern town of Mineralnye Vody by gunmen demanding the release of Chechen rebels. The hostages are freed after security forces intervene, killing one of the hostage-takers.
- April 11, 2003: Germany: After a bank holdup in Berlin, one of the robbers commandeers a bus with 20 passengers aboard. The hostages are freed by police five hours later. The hostage-taker is wounded.
- April 25, 2003: Germany: A 17-year-old Lebanese demanding the release of key al-Qaeda suspect Ramzi bin al-Shaiba, a Yemeni believed to have coordinated the September 11 attacks in the United States and held by the Americans, seized a bus for several hours in Bremen before surrendering. The 16 hostages were unharmed.
12/15/2004 14:31 GMT - AFP