Three thieves strangled a young mother in front of her 11-month-old child on Tuesday after breaking into her home in an Athens suburb and tying up her husband, police said.
The thieves made off with money and jewellery after killing the 20-year-old woman, who was born in Greece but had a British passport, the police said. Her husband, a 33-year-old pilot, survived.
The thieves also killed the family's dog and left it hanging on the fence of the house in the suburb of Glyka Nera, the police added.
Greeks are used to gangland killings but the strangling of the woman in front of her child prompted shocked headlines. "Horror at Glyka Nera," wrote the website Proto Thema.
Reuters