Police injured in Athens attack

Police are investigating the scene of the shooting outside a police station

Five policemen have been injured in a shooting in the Greek capital, Athens, authorities there have said.

Two men on a motorbike opened fire with an assault rifle on the policemen as they stood outside a police station in the northern suburb of Agia Paraskevi.

Two of the policemen are said to be seriously injured.

The authorities in Greece have been battling a wave of violence since riots broke out last December following the shooting of a teenager by police.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the latest attack.

It happened one day after the government offered a substantial reward for the capture of three criminal suspects linked to the resurgence of domestic terror, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.

The gunmen, who struck during a shift change at the police station, hit one officer on guard outside and the others as they ran out of the station.

This is the most grievous attack on police since June, our correspondent says, when a group called the Sect of Revolutionaries claimed responsibility for killing an officer who was guarding a witness in a domestic terror trial.

Another radical leftist group, called Revolutionary Struggle, has also carried out attacks in recent months.

The latest incident is a defiant gesture against Greece's new socialist government, which has promised to crack down on domestic terror, our correspondent adds.