Gruesome crime shocks Greek isle

By Malcolm Brabant BBC News, Athens

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.

Terrified residents of the popular tourist island barricaded themselves into their homes and called the police.

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 crime is one of the most gruesome in Greece in recent memory.

Ricochet

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.

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.

The man threw the head into a patrol car and then stole a police jeep and tried to get away.

But after 400m the suspect slammed into a motorbike carrying two female doctors.

They were thrown into the air and badly hurt.

The police then opened fire and hit the alleged knifeman five times.

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.