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John Kolesidis / Reuters
A security guard talks on the telephone after an attack on Microsoft's Greek headquarters in the north of Athens on Wednesday.
ATHENS - Gunmen rammed a van packed with gas canisters into Microsoft's Greek headquarters in Athens and then set the vehicle on fire, causing damage but no injuries, police said on Wednesday.
At least two people wielding pistols and a machine gun kept security guards away as they carried out the attack at about 3:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday (9:45 p.m. ET Tuesday), police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Authorities said no warning call had been made before the incident.
Arson attacks against banks, foreign firms and local politicians have become more frequent in Greece in recent years as the country battles soaring unemployment and struggles through a recession deepened by austerity policies imposed by foreign lenders.
Greece avoids 'Drachmageddon' but Europe debt crisis remains
The attacks usually occur late at night and rarely cause injuries.
Previous assaults have been mostly blamed on left-wing extremist groups, but police said it was too early to say who was behind Wednesday's attack.
$75,000 in damage
The van, which contained three inflammable gas canisters and five cans of gasoline, was completely destroyed while the ground floor of the U.S. software firm's office suffered heavy damage, police said.
Greece appeared to have avoided crashing out of the euro currency zone early Monday after political parties in favor of an international bailout deal won a slim election majority – but the region's debt crisis showed no sign of abating. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Police said initial information indicated three people had been inside the van. They forced the two security guards at the building to leave before they reversed the van into the front entrance, smashing the door.
The two security guards were giving testimony to police.
Microsoft said it would shut its office in the city while it assessed the damage.
"Staff were told not to come to work today, and probably also tomorrow," the company's spokeswoman Lia Komninou said on Skai TV.
The fire brigade estimated the damage at about 60,000 euros ($75,000).
In February, a small bomb was left on an empty subway train in Athens. A far-left group fighting the austerity policies later claimed responsibility.
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Growing public anger at the impact of the austerity measures was reflected in two parliamentary elections in May and June, in which parties opposed to the terms of the country's international bailout performed strongly.
Editor's note: Msnbc.com is a join venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
That was real dumb. If your country was having high unemployment problems the first thing on your to do list should not be attack companies and drive them out of the country. Idiots.
Leftist groups. Hmmmmmm. mad about the austerity programs and want everyone else to sacrafice but them.
greece is becoming as bad as egypt. i had the opportunity to visit recently and turned it down because theres no way i'd ever visit that place right now. congrats to greece on the lost tourism for being COMPLETE idiots.
Arson attacks against banks, foreign firms and local politicians have become more frequent in Greece
What a wonderful idea to kill the FEW JOBS LEFT DUH! These people are desperate, but that does not justify doing STUPID actions like these. Are they trying to "punish" the Capitalistic word that left them out? Shooting yourself on the leg is not punishment for that. Just plain dumb.
"... and then set the vehicle on fire, ..."
It's hard to be a gunman in Greece these days. Bomb money doesn't go as far as it used to - the Parthenon party is over.
Crazy yes, Stupid yes, Dumb yes....Kill anyone no. Frustrated with no Hope, you bet !
Greeks attacking Geeks................when will the madness end?
We can thank George Bush and his cronies for this mess.What an ignorant failure!
NO! No we can't blame George Bush! We can't blame Obama either! Stop it! Just stop that crap right now!
Right! Rather than blaming either Bush or Obama, we should blame Goldman Sachs, who helped the Greek government cook their debt books, which actually did get them into this mess.
@Knowitall
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. Before seeing your post, I had intended to make one of my own saying "So yeah, your country is suffering high unemployment.......so lets go out and make sure that other people can't work either!!" Sounds a lot like the Occupy Wallstreet mentality with one of their major complaints: "We don't have jobs/can't get jobs when we're fresh out of college! So lets clog up all the city streets and make sure other people can't get to work either!!"
@Winston
I seriously hope you're joking. If you're not, then you're displaying a level of ignorance that is absolutely baffling. Bush had absolutely nothing to do with Greece being a welfare-state that lets all its citizens retire in their 50's. Greece is a perfect example of what happens to a nation when it says "We want the government to handle/pay for everything."
@Crispy
Yeah, that means that it's actually the Greek government's fault for being so crappy/corrupt that they needed to cook their books in the first place.
WinstonBrooks, you get the gold star for idiocy and most stupid comment of the day. Something like you needs to be eradicated from the gene pool so the stupor gene, you carry, does not get spread.
Congrats - Moron!
Dr Knowitall
Thank you for saving me the trouble of saying the same thing.
When people are desperate, angry, and don't see an end to there problems they don't think rationally so they will attack anyone who has more then them or might have caused there problems even if there is ablsoutey no evidence to it. Why do you think Hitler had no problem rounding up the Jews. Germans blamed jews for the hyperinflation in Germany.
Not only was that dumb to try to ruin an office building where more people are bound to be unemployed for at least a short period of time and (great point, @Dr Knowitall), but MS is bound to cash in on some insurance money... that'll help out the Greek Economy! I wonder what they spent on the gas and the van to make this attack happen? Brilliant work out there Greeks! I think he is totally right - M$ would be smart to leave the country.
@RJ17 Greece is a democracy, and the government responsible for the crappy governance and cooked books has long since been voted out of office. Blaming the current government makes about as much sense as blaming the current residents of the apartments the 9/11 terrorists used to live in.
@ Crispy
I don't think I said the current government screwed up the economy, if anything I was implying that the people who hired Sachs (a.k.a. the Greek government) to cover up their failures was. If that isn't the current government, then I wasn't blaming them.
My point was that you don't blame Sachs for the Greek economy. They may have helped cover it up, but you should blame those who implemented the economic policies that led to the downfall. Unsustainable spending is, by definition, unsustainable.
Must be angry about all the bugs in their operating system.
It was probably Windows Vista
I still use Vista here and it took 2 minutes to start up. Even that make me so angry at MS for selling this atrocity.
I know Linux and Mac fanboys are rabid, but this crosses the line.
It's obvious they wouldn't even drive a van with windows.
Jeez... what does "Zune" mean in Greek?!?
Globalization karma. That's what you get for outsourcing jobs. In other news, PepsiCo's Mexico office was attacked twice, 30 trucks firebombed 5 warehouses set on fire. Guess they can't buy love.
PepsiCo's Mexico office was attacked twice
Mexico has hundreds of thousands of businesses that are foreign. They practically have industrial parks with companies that belong to the entire world. It would be difficult to eliminate them all. Mexico has a friendly relationship with all those companies, and the Mexicans KNOW that they depend on those jobs for their survuval. They are not that dumb.
hope...really. You know how many job MS has in the US? You know how many high paying, open positions there are still within the borders? You know how many of their products are still made right here in the USA? Funny thing about dealing with other nations, they expect a company to open offices near them to serve them too.
MS is nothing like the manufacturers who ship all their products overseas. Beyond some front line call centers MS has stayed loyal to the US in ways most companies would not even think of. They also have given tons to charities in the US and continue to.
They may not be perfect and may make a lot of mistakes but really, they have not shipped all production over the border, and they continue to strongly hire talent within the US, as well as across the globe.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/inside_ms.aspx
Microsoft has over 93,000 employees worldwide, over 55,000 are in the U.S.A. and of those, over 40,000 are in the Washington state (around Seattle, Redmond and Bellvue). And this is all after the downsizing the company went through about 4 or 5 years ago!
But I can certainly understand the frustration of these 3 gunmen - having had to put up with Vista, "the Ribbon" and threats of Windows 8, there's no doubt a jury of peers would vote Not Guilty.
This is an act of stupidity at its finest. A company that hires many greeks and provides high paying jobs for them. A company that gives a ton to charities. And these people decide to hit that company. I understand they are mad at their government. I understand they are frustrated. However, attacking companies that pour money into their country is an example of the blind type of thinking that got the country where it is to being with.
Glad nobody was hurt.
'Cause the Greeks don't want no geeks.
The Greeks don't want no geeks
Just put a little smile on them rosy
cheeks,
'Cause the Greeks don't want no geeks.
(w/apologies to the Eagles)
nice, lol
Sounds like the typical liberal ideology. Let's blow up the buildings to the corporations that employ us and actually pay the taxes that pay for our welfare. That'll show em'!!!
I was under the impression that this is a right wing strategy to blow everything up. So far Republicans have engaged us in false wars and are gun nuts, so perhaps you need to rethink this. In addition the left is at least making efforts to bring the country forward while the right has no concept. In addition, the taxes are paid by the workers for their welfare and not corporations and if you are intelligent enough you find FICA on your payslip. So get your facts right!
and not to get all technical on you Joachim, but Obama and our Democratic congress have not been in any ol' hurry to get us our of Iraq or Afghanistan or stop bombing/drone attacks, or close Gitmo, or put an end to any of those Bush era programs that were all hammered on by dems last election cycle. So I would not really put my faith in left or right. Neither side really gives a rats backside about us.
Pardon me for my ability to read, but the article itself says the left have been the people typically blowing up and setting fire to businesses out of anger over austerity measures.
What is a false war? If "false war" is definable terminology is there then also "true war". What is a true war?
the greeks are using there brains now, this is perfect yes run ever company out of the country so no one has a job, you are acting like commies now. your government can no longer feed you, a company can work you for money, then you take the money and buy food , works for me
Crazy yes, Stupid yes, Dumb yes ... Kill anyone no...Frustrated and no Hope, you bet!
If their guns were required to be registered this could not have happened.
Please explain ------ your Hillary type statement makes about as much sense as this silly prank.
I doubt we're getting the whole story. Most likely explanation is the bombers are trying to squeeze foreign businesses for protection money. The message is clear: "This is what will happen to your offices if you don't pay us." Clever when you think about it - shake down foreign companies that have investments in Greece and are unlikely to pull out.
I know people are upset over the Windows 8 UI but... damn...
It's all Greek to me!
Aldavino, let us show them, let us show them good!! Drive the van right in there.. Yes, set it ablaze, we show them good!! Ha Ha Ha!! Oh wait, um Alek that was my van, so um, I guess we have to ride the bus home..
Guess someone really didn't like Windows 8...
How stupid, Blame Microsoft for Greek's problems. But what do you expect from Labor union rank & file. !!!!!
Expect more of this as Greece crumbles.
No, what it is, is the Communist Party making their move.
ROFL
I first thought the headline said "Gunmen ram van into Microsoft's Geek HQ".
So they put more people out of work.... Shared misery, that's the answer.
As the saying goes: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts".
Beware of Greeks bearing GIFs.
They were trying to get the new Surface early, Siri didn't tell them to park when they got directions to the HQ. A Google ad popped up and caused them to take their eyes off the road. I blame rap music.
Sounds like a Trojan Van. Gimme my Start Menu back! Down with Metro!
recalculating!!!
They are probably mad about Microsoft Windows 8 (it's the best thing since Windows ME)...