The athlete is shocked: “I went to watch the sunset, and the gypsies brutally beat me”

IN Patrach former track and field champion Andriana Fotakopoulou told about the attack, theft of a bag and beating near the settlement Roma.

According to her, three minors Roma smashed her car window, stole her bag, and then attacked her when she tried to get her things back.

The incident occurred on the bridge Peripheral road Patraswhere the woman stopped briefly to watch the sunset. What should have been a few minutes of silence turned into a scene of violence, fear and complete helplessness in the face of street crime.

According to MEGA, Andriana Fotakopoulou said she got out of the car, locked it and left her bag on the passenger seat. Suddenly the glass was broken, after which one of the attackers pulled out a bag from the passenger compartment.

According to the victim, there were three attackers. One of them, she claims, was a teenager around 15–16 years oldthe other two are younger. The woman tried to catch up with the kidnappers, but during the chase she fell into a ditch and was injured.

In Patras, a former champion was beaten after a Roma attack pic.twitter.com/NbmvCnyFkX

— Athens News (@russianathens) May 19, 2026

Then the situation became even more dangerous. According to her, the attackers threw stones at her, and she ended up at the bottom of the Peripheral Road, near the settlement. In an interview MEGA Fotakopoulou described the moment when she realized that she could not go further:

“I saw 50-60 gypsies in front of me and said to myself: “Stop, they will never find you here.”

In the original Greek, the victim used a harsher word when talking about the people from the settlement. It is important in the article to convey the meaning of her testimony, but not to replace a specific crime with a collective accusation. According to her, three people attacked. However, the fear of being near a large crowd of people from the settlement became part of her experience of horror.

Fotakopoulou also said that during the chase she screamed at the attackers to take the money, but leave her the documents:

“I shouted all the way: ‘Take the money and throw away the bag. Leave me the documents.'”

According to Ta Neathree Roma stole her bag, beat her and threw stones at her, leaving visible injuries. Proto Theme also writes that after the first shock, the woman tried to react, but was hit, fell into a ditch and was seriously injured.

Not the first time

According to Andriana Fotakopoulouthis is not the first time she has become the target of such attacks. Greek media reports her statements that she had previously also faced attacks from people from the same environment. If this is confirmed, we are no longer talking about a random episode, but about a recurring threat in a specific area.

And here the most unpleasant question begins: what do the authorities do if people have been aware of risk points for years, but continue to fall into the same traps? In such stories it is easy to read another moral about “don’t leave your bag in the car.” Yes, don’t leave it. But this does not negate the main thing: in a normal state, a person should not be afraid that in a few minutes he will be robbed on the road, beaten and driven to a settlement, where he no longer thinks about his bag, but about whether he will be found at all.

A problem that cannot be ignored

The issue of crime among the Roma population in Greece has long been a topic that authorities and the media often talk about either too cautiously or too hysterically. Both options are bad. The silence irritates society and creates the feeling that the real problem is being swept under the rug. Hysteria, on the contrary, turns specific crimes into a collective accusation against the entire community.

But the fact remains: when thefts, assaults, robberies and persecutions regularly occur near certain settlements, this is no longer a “social sensitivity”, but a question public safety. And if the police appear only after the next victim, then the state actually leaves citizens alone with the criminal environment.

Attacks cannot be justified by poverty, background or age of the perpetrators. A juvenile criminal still remains a criminal, and the victim does not become less beaten because someone later beautifully explains the reasons for social marginalization. Social policy is needed. Integration is needed. But impunity is not integration. This is an invitation to the next attack.

Editorial comment

Story Andriana Fotakopoulou scary not only because of the brutality of the attack. She’s scared by the feeling of complete insecurity: the woman stopped to look at the sunset, and a few minutes later she was screaming at the attackers to at least leave her documents, and thought that if she went further, they might simply not find her.

Authorities love to talk about order, safety and protection of citizens. But order is tested not by press releases, but by episodes like this. If in specific areas people are afraid to stop their car, go out onto the road, or try to return stolen things, it means that the state is present there only on paper.

And yes, the ethnic factor here cannot simply be cut out of the text with the scissors of political correctness. The victim herself speaks of the attackers as Roma and connects the episode with the settlement. This is part of her testimony. But responsibility must be borne by specific criminals and those structures that for years have allowed criminals to live next to ordinary citizens as a separate state within a state.

Police continue to investigate the case robbery And causing bodily harm. And now the main question is not only whether the three attackers will be found. The main question is how many more stories like this need to happen before the state stops pretending that the problem will disappear if we talk about it more quietly.

Sources: MEGA, MEGA, Ta Nea, Proto Theme, Newsit

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