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Police sources define the robbery of the Agrotiki bank branch in Klitoria village in the Achaia area on Monday afternoon as a terrorist operation. The Greek daily To Vima reports that there are several reasons for their suspicions. One is the age of the robbers who are considered to be between 22 and 27 years old and the other is the fact that two cars, one of which had been stolen in Athens two weeks earlier, were used during the robbery. Another reason for their suspicions is the composure of the attackers who had shot at two policemen.

The police also believe that the date of the robbery is not coincidental, as Lambros Foundas, a member of the terrorist organization "Revolutionary Struggle", was killed during a shootout with a police patrol on 10 March four years ago.

The bank branch in question had been robbed in the past too, namely in February 1999 during a police operation to apprehend, in the mountains near Corinth, criminals who were associated with the anarchist circles.

The bank robbery took place at 2:30 pm on Monday and the two attackers were able to steal around 3,800 euro from the cash registers. In order to hide their faces, one of them was wearing thick glasses and a wig, and the other an artificial beard.

The investigation reveals that they had planned to rob the bank vault, which stores large amounts of money and is protected by a system with  delay timer. The robbery of the small amount from the cash registers had however activated the alarm system and one of the two policemen who had appeared immediately on the spot had arrived at the bank branch within several minutes.

He was slightly wounded in the leg during the shootout and, according to witnesses, the attackers had stolen his service pistol. They also state that both robbers were Greeks.

Upon leaving the bank, the robbers had coolly exchanged gunfire with the policeman who was outside, and then got into the car and left. The particular car was later found near the scene of the robbery.

According to sources, the robbery had involved a third attacker with a second car. The police station in Patras, which is in constant contact with the anti-terrorist service in Athens, is investigating the case.

At the same time, controversy is dividing the terrorists who are at liberty and those of them who are hiding. Nikos Maziotis and his girlfriend Paula Roupa have published on a website that is associated with the anarchist circles a letter against runaway Christodoulos Xiros, who is a member of "17 November", signing it as members of "Revolutionary Struggle". They oppose in it the manifesto by Xiros, saying, "We have several major criteria for our political relations. They are political but, above all, they are based on principles."

The terrorist couple claims that they could not cooperate with him because he had confessed to the names and details of the activities of "17 November" before the authorities.

In the same text, they deny their involvement in the terrorist "Group of people’s fighters", which assumed responsibility for the attack against the headquarters of New Democracy and the home of the German ambassador in Athens. Maziotis and Roupa disassociate themselves from the car full of weapons that has been recently discovered in the suburb of Paleo Faliro. They indicate in parallel that the reward of two million euro, which the Greek state will pay the person who will provide information about their whereabouts "speaks for itself as to how pressing the armed struggle is."

Maziotis and Roupa have preferred to publish their letter on the day of the murder of Lambros Foundas too. The text begins and ends with the memory of his activity and describes him as "a symbol and beacon of revolution."