A strong police force had surrounded the HELESI PLC garbage bin factory in Komotini's industrial zone on Thursday evening, where a 50-year-old gunman was still holding two men hostage. A coordinated police operation in the afternoon had successfully evacuated two women employees, who had hidden themselves in one of the factory store rooms.

A public prosecutor had also arrived on the scene, as well as men from the Special Counter Terrorism Unit, alongside police negotiators trying to persuade the gunman to release the hostages and surrender.

The hostage-taker, identified as a former employee of the company, had earlier shot and injured two people at the factory, who were admitted to Komotini's general hospital. According to the doctors in charge, their condition was not life-threatening. A third man was also taken to hospital with minor injuries and released after receiving first aid.

The injured men were identified as a major shareholder of the company, who had been hit in the chest area, and a Bulgarian factory worker that was shot in the right thigh.

According to information gathered by police, the gunman is a father of two that was fired from his job at the factory's distribution department eight months earlier. He turned up at factory premises with a shotgun at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday and started shooting indiscriminately, demanding his job back and claiming that the owner had repeatedly promised to hire him again.