New details are coming to light about the massacre in Glyfada which has shocked the whole of Greece. The reason for the murderous rampage of a 76-year-old Egyptian-born man who broke into his former employers’ shipping company, killed the owner, her managing director and son-in-law and a former captain before taking his own life.

What the workers testified

Testimonies of the workers who came face to face with the perpetrator are indicative of what happened inside the shipping company.

“I saw him coming up from the basement. He was holding a duffel bag. I understood that he had a gun inside. What are you going to do, I asked him. They are kicking me out of the house, you will see what I will do to them, he said. I will kill them and kill myself, go away from here, he continued angrily. I’m going to clean up the bosses, I won’t bother the workers, he told me. I immediately called the police, and a few minutes later I heard the shots,” said the building guard.

Characteristic of the moments they lived inside the building is another testimony of an employee who was even trapped together with one of her colleagues in the company premises, seeing what happened and hearing the shots:

“We heard a commotion, someone shouting ‘Ari what are you doing there?’ Me and the colleague had seen ‘Mars’ with the gun and then we heard the shots as if the building shook. We ran and entered the area where we had a small kitchen and toilet and locked the door. After some time, the police came, unboxed us and removed us from the building. They were looking to find ‘Mars’, they hadn’t found him and they were looking for him. They asked us if we saw where he had gone, but we didn’t know.”

The background: How it all began, the critical minutes in the shipping industry – The motivations of the perpetrator that caused the carnage

The 76-year-old – who was made redundant a year ago – entered the building at around 10.10am heading to the 77-year-old landlady’s office. They fought fiercely, according to witnesses. She threw him out of her office telling him to pack up and leave the house owned by the family’s grandmother that the family had given him to live in. Enraged, he goes down to the company’s parking lot, takes the bag with the rifle and the revolver, then goes up to the first floor, kicks in the door and then shoots the owner in the arm, who is trying to find shelter in her son-in-law’s office, who also shoots with the carbine. At this point, the 75-year-old former captain and employee of the company tries to disarm him and it seems that he temporarily succeeds in doing so by detaching the assailant’s carbine for a while. However, he was also armed with the revolver. He pulls it out and shoots the 75-year-old in the back and body. He then grabs the rifle again and shoots the owner in the head.

After killing his three victims, he also looks for the owner’s sister, who apparently was on the second floor of the building. When the police enter the building, he goes down to the basement where he ends his life.

According to information, the perpetrator worked for decades for the family and the business and that is why no one checked him when he arrived at the shipping company.