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Gruesome crime shocks Greek isle Santorini 'butcher' gravely ill
(1 day later)
Police on the Greek island of Santorini have shot and injured a knifeman who decapitated his girlfriend and walked around the streets with her head. A man who decapitated his girlfriend and paraded the head around a village on the Greek island of Santorini is now fighting for his life in hospital.
Terrified residents of the popular tourist island barricaded themselves into their homes and called the police. Athanassios Arvanitis, a 31-year-old chef, was shot five times by police before his arrest. He has wounds to his lungs and is in intensive care.
The suspect, 35, was shot during a dramatic car chase in which he crashed into a motorbike and badly injured the rider and pillion passenger. The authorities believe the deadly rampage was triggered by his dismissal as a chef in a hotel.
The crime is one of the most gruesome in Greece in recent memory. Three women injured during the police chase are said to be out of danger.
Ricochet The trail of violence began when the man used a butcher's knife to decapitate his girlfriend's dog on the balcony of their home in the village of Vourvoulos, near Santorini's main town Thira.
The man reportedly beheaded his girlfriend, a teacher in her mid-to-late 20s, in the village of Vourvoulos, close to the island's capital, Thira, and then paraded with the head. Next, Mr Arvanitis allegedly killed his girlfriend, a 25-year-old teacher called Adamantia Karkali, by stabbing her in the armpit.
Speaking on Greek television, the local sub-prefect said the man attacked officers who tried to arrest him and slashed one policeman in the face. He then cut her head off and began parading it around the streets.
The man threw the head into a patrol car and then stole a police jeep and tried to get away. During a dramatic chase, Mr Arvanitis tried and failed to behead a policeman. He was then shot five times and arrested.
But after 400m the suspect slammed into a motorbike carrying two female doctors. Doctors at Santorini's medical centre say that despite his injuries they found it almost impossible to restrain him.
They were thrown into the air and badly hurt. Two women doctors knocked from their motorbike by Mr Arvanitis as he tried to get away in a police jeep are said to be out of danger, as is a Greek woman tourist who was hit by a ricocheting bullet as she watched the sunset.
The police then opened fire and hit the alleged knifeman five times. People living in Santorini say they have not witnessed such savagery on this iconically beautiful island since the Germans carried out executions during the World War II occupation.
According to one eyewitness, one police bullet ricocheted off the road and hit a woman in the leg and jaw.
The suspect is said to have a history of jealousy and domestic violence.
The authorities say they are organising a military aircraft to fly the man and some of those he injured to undergo emergency surgery in Athens.