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The Greek police are still searching for the attackers who, in the early hours on Monday, had shot pointblank policeman George Andritsopoulos during a check near the village of Distomo. The killed officer was 37 years old, the father of two children and the family was preparing to welcome, a month later, their third child.

The authorities believe that the attackers are the runaways from the prison in Trikala who have not yet been captured. All suspects are of Albanian origin and it is believed that they have scattered and are operating in the region of Viotia. The large-scale operation to capture them involves different units of the Greek police in Athens and local police stations as well as a helicopter equipped with a thermal camera.

The policeman is the second victim of the dangerous criminals after their escape from the prison in May this year. He was seriously wounded during a police check in the area of ​​Desfina around 2 am on Monday morning. George Andritsopoulos and his colleagues had been informed that suspicious persons were walking around Distomo. They had immediately left for the area by patrol car and a civilian police car followed them.

The patrol car with the three policemen arrived first. While they were parking the car, five persons appeared from the woods nearby. With Kalashnikovs in hand, they were able to disarm the policemen and steal their weapons, three vests, three guns and a G3A3 battle rifle.

At the same time, the civilian car with two other policemen arrived on the scene. Then, one of the attackers opened fire at them with a Kalashnikov gun. One of the shots wounded the driver of the car, injuring the thigh artery. The policeman died from massive bleeding and the hospital in Livadia, where he was taken, could only establish that he was dead.

The attackers fled with the patrol car which is now being sought by the police. The authorities believe that they have another civilian car and a van which had been stolen from the region several days ago.

Although the developments are not officially connected with the fugitives from the prison in Trikala, the car thefts in the specific area over the last two weeks probably indicate their route. At first, two cars had been stolen near the village of Eratini, which were later found near the winter resort of Parnassos. One of the cars was burnt and the other was full of heavy weapons and explosives. Subsequently, two cars and a van were stolen from other villages in the area of Fthiotida. Of these, only the white Toyota has been found near Delphi whereas the red Lada was noticed at Leventis intersection where the attackers fired at the police.

Two days ago, firefighters saw two people in the forest area of ​​the monastery in Damasta. When asked what they were doing there, they replied that they were on a picnic. The firefighters noticed that one of the men was hiding a gun under his clothes and informed the police but there was no sign of the two men when the patrol cars arrived there.

Seven of the eleven Albanians who have escaped from the prison in Trikala have not been captured yet. Three of them were apprehended near the prison a day after the escape. Ermal Litar, aged 35, was arrested on Good Friday after a robbery at a supermarket in the Athens suburb of Peristeri. He was involved in the murder of a young woman in Isthmia near Corinth and in an attack against policemen near Mandra close to Athens.

The remaining seven have not been captured yet despite the efforts of the police. Mario Kola, who is the most dangerous of all, is considered as the head of the group. He was arrested in the Athens neighbourhood of Vironas on 16 February 2010 during a fierce skirmish with the police which involved Litari too and was subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison. According to the data available to date, Kola was involved in all attacks of the group after their escape from prison.

Another dangerous member of the group is Ilir Kupa, aged 27, whose biological material was found in the car that the attackers had used in the skirmish with the police in Mandra, and in the white van stolen in Corinth.

He was arrested in the Athens district of Neos Kosmos in October 2011 for participation in a criminal group composed only of Albanians. Admir Muratai and Klement Kola are the names of the other two fugitives whose traces have been detected in various attacks. The first was involved, along with Litar, in the robbery in Peristeri and in the robbery of a branch of the National Bank of Greece in Larissa, which he had organized together with Klement. The robbery took place on 16 May this year and the loot was one million euro.

Ermal Litar after his capture during the attempted robbery in the Athens suburb of Peristeri

There is no evidence that the three remaining fugitives were involved in subsequent attacks but they are considered as particularly dangerous. Police sources say that the fugitives are hiding in the "triangle" between the areas of Fthiotida, Phocis and Viotia because the area is mountainous and they can find there shelters and various routes to escape.