MAKARATZIS v. GREECE JUDGMENT 9 it must be dead. The control centre told the officers on motorcycles to follow him from a distance because of the danger. At Amfithea he collided with a taxi driver, causing him a neck injury; he later had to wear a collar. He continued down Posidonos Street and Kalamakiou Street. He entered the side street and drove against the traffic. He drove past the other cars and crossed over to Kalamakiou. That was where the first gunshots were fired. I leaned out of the left window at the back and shot at the back left tyre of the Skoda. The tyre burst. I was certain about the direction of the bullet. I knew that no one was in danger. When a bullet hits a tyre, it does not ricochet. I fired from a distance of 5 metres. After firing, I saw that the tyre had been punctured. Mahairas fired at the right tyre at the back. With his tyres burst, Makaratzis stopped at the petrol station. We were almost level with him. I acted as a traffic controller. I stopped the oncoming cars, and once the arrest had been made I saw how many police cars there were. There were more than nine. When all the police cars were at the petrol station, shots were fired in the air, not at the car. The car had been hit at the junction. There were a lot of policemen. They occupied both lanes of the street. The Skoda had to slow down, and they fired at him. I was stopping the cars. If they had aimed at the car when we were at the petrol station, they would have shot me too. I believe all the gunshots, even the ones that hit the windows, were aimed at the tyres.” 5. Mr Mahairas “I was at the American embassy with Markou. We saw a Skoda going through a red light. The traffic warden waved to him to stop. The Skoda continued driving towards our colleague, at the risk of hitting him. We got in our car and followed him. He crossed into the oncoming lane and went through a red light at Vassilissis Sofias Street. We lost him and then we suddenly saw him at the War Museum. We followed him, turned on the flashing lights and waved to him to stop. At the flower shops he turned on his hazard lights as if he were going to stop. Suddenly, he increased his speed and crossed into the oncoming lane on Amalias Street and continued towards Sintagma and Siggrou. We followed him. Other police cars arrived. At Trokadero he bypassed a roadblock by driving around the side. At Flisvos he caused a Daihatsu to turn upside down and continued on his way. Further down the road there was a roadblock. He collided with a taxi driver and continued on. At the junction of Kalamakiou and Posidonos Streets there was another roadblock. He turned right into a side street and then turned left, crossing Posidonos Street. I heard some gunshots there. We drove to the top of the side street, followed him and, when we reached Posidonos Street, we were 5 metres away from him. I took my weapon out and aimed at his right rear tyre. When you fire shot after shot it is difficult to aim. I put my weapon on to automatic, which makes it fire three or four times. The Skoda stopped 70 metres away, at the petrol station, and we followed. The entire course and his behaviour had seemed extremely dangerous to us, like that of a terrorist. Other police cars and motorcycles arrived. They called to him to get out of the car. He didn’t, and some gunshots were fired. We were 10 metres behind him. If they did fire from the other police cars directly at him, we weren’t in their line of fire. I heard some colleagues say, ‘Let’s fire some gunshots to intimidate him’. Someone got up on the veranda and threw a pot down. One of my colleagues, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, and whom I did not know, along with someone else, got close, broke the window and called to him to get out. He didn’t, so they pulled him out. One of them attempted to put handcuffs on him. Someone shouted ‘Careful, he is injured’ and they didn’t put them on. The ambulance came. I didn’t know whether he had been injured by a bullet or in a car accident. Neither my weapon nor Souliotis’s fires Magnum bullets. The A-