Hijacker of Japanese tourists kills self in custody

Hijacker of Japanese tourists kills self in custody
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATHENS, NOV 5: The gunman who hijacked a bus carrying 33 Japanese tourists after killing two people committed suicide by jumping out of a window at police headquarters today, police said. He died instantly.

Christos Kendiras, 48, broke a window and jumped from the seventh floor of the police building in central Athens just before he was to be transported to a prosecutor to be formally charged, police said.

Yesterday Kendiras hijacked a bus with 35 people, including 33 Japanese tourists, after killing his mother-in-law and a friend in southern Greece over a family dispute.

Police had finished taking his fingerprints before Kendiras killed himself, authorities said. Two police officers had been escorting Kendiras when he broke free from them and ran at a window. He landed on a second-floor balcony of the building, they added.

"Unfortunately, we had this event, which is not the best thing that could have happened to us," said Dimitris Efstathiadis, general secretary of the Public Order Ministry.

"There is no justification after the drama we had yesterday for any relaxing of security measures" to allow the suicide to happen, he added.

Public Order Minister Mihalis Chrisohoides had ordered" an immediate investigation to determine how this occurred," Efstathiadis said.