Gunmen Raid Greek Cruise Ship, Kill 3 and Injure 60 : Americans Among 570 on Board

ATHENS — Gunmen hurling grenades and firing submachine guns attacked a cruise ship carrying 570 people today, killing three people and injuring at least 60 others, port police said.

Athens radio said most of the passengers aboard the 688-ton City of Poros at the peak of the holiday season were foreigners, including many Americans.

Passengers told police the three gunmen escaped aboard a small yacht that pulled alongside the cruise ship and sped away. Police said 570 passengers were aboard the ship when the gunmen opened fire.

It was not immediately known how many people were wounded in the attack on the vessel, which was on a 24-hour cruise around the Aegean islands near Athens.

There was no claim of responsibility for the raid. Merchant Marine Ministry sources said the gunmen opened direct fire on passengers.

Panic Among Passengers

Panic erupted among the passengers and some of them jumped into the sea to escape the explosions and gunfire, witnesses and police said.

“Most of the passengers jumped into the sea when the first explosions were heard. It was absolute hell,” one passenger said.

Coast guard boats plucked wounded passengers from the sea and all hospitals in Athens were put on alert to receive casualties.

Hospital sources said at least 60 people were admitted for treatment. “They are very frightened, some of them in shock,” a doctor said.

“It is still uncertain how many people were injured or what nationality the gunmen were,” said a port police spokesman, “but we know that among the dead was a foreign man and a woman and a member of the crew.”

Evening Attack

The attack occurred at 8:40 p.m. as the City of Poros, having left the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf, headed back to a small marina in the Athens seaside suburb of Paleon Faliron, port police said.

An amateur photographer aboard a hydrofoil passing near the City of Poros after the gunmen fled shot film that was screened on Greek TV. The film showed a helicopter hovering over the liner and at least 10 smaller vessels coming to the ship’s assistance.

With smoke pouring out of the ship’s side, it sailed the 16 miles to the Athens port of Piraeus at full speed.

The coast guard said firefighters had brought the blaze on the vessel under control and it was being towed to Piraeus.

Car Explodes Near Marina

Earlier today, an explosion destroyed a parked car near the marina where the City of Poros was expected to dock in Paleon Faliron, killing the car’s two occupants, believed to be of Arab origin. Police said the car contained explosives, hand grenades, automatic weapons and huge amounts of U.S. dollars.

Police said the car that blew up had been rented to a 36-year-old Lebanese man, Hamoud Hamid.

Police speculated the people killed in the car explosion were connected with the gunmen aboard the liner and could have been waiting for the ship to arrive at the marina in Paleon Faliron.

The auto blast badly damaged a yacht club and broke windows of nearby houses. No other casualties were reported, but the explosion blew a 6-foot-deep crater in the road.

Police said they also found an Arab magazine near the wrecked car.

“Apart from the weaponry we found, the car must have been packed with explosives. It was a huge explosion and it was a miracle we did not have more victims,” one police officer said.

Two weeks ago, the American military attache to Greece, Navy Capt. William E. Nordeen, was assassinated by a booby-trapped car that exploded as he drove past in his bulletproof car on his way to work.