Syrian national detained in Athens church for shouting “Allahu Akbar”

A young Syrian man was detained inside a church of Agios Paneleimonas district of Athens which he entered carrying a knife. The priest alerted the police as he thought that the man who entered the church short before 8 p.m. on Thursday was behaving suspiciously.

foreigner with Syrian citizenship fell into the hands of the trained men of OPKE, who invaded a church in Agios Panteleimonas shortly before 8pm on Thursday, carrying a huge knife in his backpack.

According to media reports, upon entering the church, the man fell on his knees and started praying.

Police officers found him in the same position and tried to detain him.

The suspect started to shout “Allahu Akbar” – God is great – and resisted to his arrest. However, police managed to handcuff him.

In his backpack, police found a 24-cm-long knife, news website newsit.gr reported..

They took him to police station, while a prosecutor ordered his transfer to a psychiatric hospital.

According to media information, the 24-year-old Syrian national has been living in Athens since quite some time and has been already known to police due to several incidents in the recent past.

During the Easter period, he entered again the Agios Panteleimonas church during the liturgy and started reading the Koran. A case was filed against him and he was also “administratively deported” [no idea what that means!] for reasons of public safety.

After another weird incident, he was again ordered for a psychiatric examination for reasons of public safety, however, his detention was not deemed necessary.

About 20 days ago, he reportedly set fire to the “Gardener’s House”, which belongs to the Municipality, the fire brigade was called upon to investigate.