File photo.
Police arrested a 17-year-old identified as one of the accomplices of a 20-year-old Roma man who was the driver in a road chase that resulted in the fatal injury on Monday of a 29-year-old officer of the Dias police motorcycle unit.
The pursuit was initiated after a Dias motorcycle and a patrol car attempted to stop four suspects in two cars believed to be involved in an apparent car theft in Nikaia, near Piraeus.
The officer was killed when he rammed into the back of the police car which was braking during the chase on the Athens-Corinth highway at Aspropyrgos. His co-passenger was also seriously injured.
The 20-year-old Roma man was arrested on Monday and together with three others was charged with setting up a criminal group with the aim of stealing vehicles. Between Sunday night and Monday morning they had stolen four vehicles from Nikaia and Perama, also near Piraeus.