Two members of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party have been killed in a suspected drive-by shooting.<br /><br />The attack took place amid a government crack down on the party, the country’s third most popular political force.<br /><br />The victims, both in their early 20s, have been identified as Giorgos Fountoulis and Manos Kapelonis.<br /><br />A third man was seriously wounded in the shooting on a busy street during the evening rush hour, police said, declining to go into further details.<br /><br />It is understood they were gunned down outside the party’s headquarters in the Greek capital.<br />Almost immediately afterwards, scores of riot police cordoned off the streets surrounding the building.<br /><br />Golden Dawn parliamentary Elias Kassidiaris described the shooting as cold-blooded murder: “When the lads were laying on the ground, the assassins kept firing at them until they emptied their guns.” <br /><br />Other politicians, who have in the past queued up to pour scorn on Golden Dawn, united in condemning the shooting.<br /><br />The killing in September of rapper Pavlos Fissas prompted a crackdown on the party and led to sometimes violent protests across Greece.<br /><br />Lawmakers from across the political spectrum condemned the killing and in the wake of recent protests for and against Golden Dawn, its leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos and two senior lawmakers<br />were ordered to be detained last month pending their trial on charges of belonging to a criminal group.<br /><br />Euronews’ Athens correspondent Stamatis Giannisis said: “The cold blooded killing of the Golden Dawn members has come only a few weeks after the murder of the left wing activist by a member of the ultra right wing party is causing serious concerns to the Greek authorities who fear that this might be the beginning of a vendetta between the extreme right and the extreme left with unforeseeable consequences.”
