A family of German tourists was chased and attacked by two locals driving a pickup truck in the area of Mylopotamos in Rethymno, Crete on Saturday morning.
The incident occurred as the German family—a father, two sons, and a daughter—was driving in a rented vehicle on the Mylopotamos ring road just outside of the town of Perama.
The chase began as soon as the family car overtook the pickup truck. Apparently, because the locals considered it an insult that a rental car with ‘foreigners’ overtook them, they sped up and crashed into the car on purpose.
They repeatedly crashed into the rental car for some time over a distance of at least two kilometers.
The German family’s rental car after the chase:
When the two locals managed to overtake the rental car they blocked it and terrorized the family by threatening the father and his children.
German tourists were threatened with a knife in Crete
According to ERT report, the driver of the pickup truck exited his own car and knocked on the door of the co-passenger. He started punching the foreigner through the window. Initially, the young man was shocked but then tried to protect himself while his brother got out of the car and hit the enraged rancher in order to protect his brother.
The situation got out of control when the passenger of the rural vehicle got out of the car holding a knife with a 20-cm-long blade.
The frightened tourists attempted to move away. The two locals, however, continued to pursue them and “pound” the rented vehicle for a distance of another two kilometers—that is, up to the center of Perama which was crowded at that time.
The driver of the rural vehicle found himself in front of the rental vehicle and literally “climbed” backwards into the stopped vehicle with the family in a state of absolute terror and facing immediate danger to their lives.
Eventually, residents of Perama intervened and helped the German family leave the area.
The two perpetrators fled. According to local media neakriti.gr, they have been identified as two men aged 36 and 38. However, they have not been arrested thus far with the deadline for their immediate arrest and imprisonment to have expired at midnight Saturday.
“It was like a horror movie!”
The police department reportedly has footage of the frantic pursuit, demonstrating the foreign driver’s desperation to escape his pursuers and protect his family.
The German family filed a lawsuit at the local police station.
The family of the German tourists, who say they are shocked by the event, is calling for the immediate arrest of the perpetrators of the murderous attack against them.
“It was like a horror movie. We can’t describe how scary and unreal it was to see your life threatened, to see a man coming at you with a knife,” said Chris one of the victims. “My sister was crying and I tried to protect her, but you can’t [very well] when you see a knife. It’s shocking.”
“To consider Crete…a safe place, I expect the immediate arrest of the perpetrators and [that they] be charged with attempted murder,” one of the family members told an ERT reporter on Sunday.
The young man said the whole thing was “very scary!”
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