MAKARATZIS v. GREECE JUDGMENT 11 towards Siggrou at full speed. We had notified other police cars that were going to Siggrou. At some stage he almost collided with a police car. When he reached the coastal avenue, we had already formed a roadblock. He collided with some civilian cars, got away, and drove on. Further down, at Flisvos, he collided with a red car and caused it to turn over, and then drove off at full speed. There was traffic in the area. There was a lot of traffic in Kalamakiou and he moved on to the hard shoulder. It was in that area, in Kalamakiou, that we heard gunshots for the first time. Until then we hadn’t fired because there was a lot of traffic and we could have injured civilians. We didn’t lose him at any point; we only almost lost him at the beginning of Kalamakiou, where there was an obstacle on the pavement. Mr Mahairas and Mr Souliotis were in the car with me and it was around that area that our colleagues fired at the tyres of the car. I maintain that, with our training, we can hit the target in 99% of cases, if not 100%. The driver stopped at the petrol station. We moved the civilians out of the way and some other colleagues who were wearing bullet-proof vests approached his car, broke the windows and pulled him out of the car, because they had called to him to get out several times but he hadn’t. Gunshots were heard from a distance. I don’t know where they were coming from. A colleague had gone up on to the veranda, but I don’t think he fired. He threw a pot at the driver. When the gunshots were fired, the victim’s car was parked sideways on the right of the petrol station. We were at the left of the petrol station and the others were behind me. I don’t know if others fired at the car. We heard gunshots at the beginning of Kalamakiou, and at the end, when everything was over. The final shots were probably fired to intimidate the victim. [Officer] Boulketis was the one that pulled him out. I don’t think he fired at him. There was no reason to do so. The victim made some movements in the car: he moved right and then left, as if looking for something, and it was conceivable that he had a weapon. That is why colleagues wearing bullet-proof vests went to pull him out of the car. I don’t know about the ballistic investigation. The bullets found inside the car were from the weapons of Souliotis and Mahairas. However, my colleagues were aiming at the tyres. The speed of the chase was approximately 60 km/h in Vassilissis Sofias and Amalias Streets, because there was traffic. We were about 10 metres behind him. Near the columns [of the Temple of Olympian Zeus] motorcycles appeared both ahead of us and behind. At the beginning of Siggrou another police car came up in front of the victim and he almost collided with it. He was moving from left to right in Siggrou, racing at 160 km/h and changing lanes constantly. I can’t say which police cars were behind us at the corner of Kalamakiou, because when we chase someone we don’t see what is going on behind. We stopped at the petrol station; two motorcycles stopped behind us, and another car stopped behind them. The first gunshots were fired at the junction of Posidonos and Kalamakiou Streets. In Kalamakiou Street, before Posidonos Street, when we were 5 metres behind him, Mr Mahairas used his firearm and shot at the tyres of the car. Mr Souliotis must have used his weapon too at the same spot. When the driver reached the petrol station and stopped, I called from the car to the civilians to move out of the way and to the driver to get out, and a colleague who was wearing a bullet-proof vest went to pull him out. I don’t know how many bullets were fired; the front windscreen broke because a pot was thrown at it. I do not know how the front passenger’s window broke, or how the back window broke. I don’t know how the victim’s foot was injured. It couldn’t have been when shots were fired around the car. Finally, we went to the police station to make a statement. Our lives weren’t directly at risk during the incident. The driver had caused accidents, driven into the oncoming traffic and endangered many people. In total, he had been chased by thirty-three policemen, whose weapons were confiscated, but others had also got involved. We had never seen anything like it. They told us on the radio to be careful, that the individual was carrying a weapon and might be extremely dangerous. Souliotis is a traffic warden. Of course he was not carrying a