Shipping tycoon abducted at gunpoint

A prominent Greek ship owner was kidnapped near his home in Athens yesterday by three men armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, in the third such high-profile abduction in Greece since June, police said.

The president of Greek ferry operator Superfast Ferries, Pericles Panagopoulos, was abducted as he was being driven to work in a coastal suburb. No-one was injured in the incident, which is being investigated by anti-terrorist police.

"Panagopoulos and his driver were stopped and forced into another car by three gun-wielding assailants," a police official who declined to be name said.