Russia has built what human rights investigators describe as a global pipeline recruiting vulnerable foreign nationals into its war against Ukraine, drawing tens of thousands from more than 130 countries through what groups allege are coercive, deceptive and in some cases trafficking-like practices.

After suffering major battlefield losses and seeking to avoid another politically risky domestic mobilization, Moscow institutionalized a worldwide recruitment system targeting some of the world’s most vulnerable populations to sustain its war machine, a new report by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Truth Hounds and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights argues. 

Russia has recruited at least 27,000 foreign nationals since February 2022 from countries across Central and South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, according to the report. Ukrainian authorities cited in the report project that Russia could recruit another 18,500 foreign nationals in 2026 alone, which would mark the highest annual total since the full-scale invasion began.

AS WAR LOSSES NEAR 2 MILLION, RUSSIA ACCUSED OF TRAFFICKING FOREIGN RECRUITS FROM AFRICA, ASIA

"This report highlights something fundamental: that the use of foreign fighters by Russia is neither a marginal nor a spontaneous phenomenon. Russia has built a global recruitment system that deliberately targets the most vulnerable populations — undocumented migrants, detainees, precarious workers, or even foreign students — across dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America," said Alexis Deswaef, president of the International Federation for Human Rights. 

"Many of these men knew in some capacity what they were signing up for. But some were also deceived or coerced. But in all cases, it is a State that has instrumentalised them as part of its war machine and sent them to the most dangerous positions on the frontline."

The report’s central allegation is that Russia’s recruitment apparatus extends far beyond traditional mercenary networks and instead functions as a state-enabled global system that exploits poverty, legal vulnerability and migration insecurity.

Investigators say recruitment evolved from relying primarily on ideologically motivated volunteers early in the war to a broader institutionalized model by mid-2023, after Russia expanded legal eligibility for foreign nationals, eased language and residency requirements, and offered citizenship and financial incentives in exchange for service.

NORTH KOREAN LABORERS DESCRIBE BRUTAL FORCED LABOR IN RUSSIA: "WORKING LIKE A COW, EARNING NOTHING"

In some cases, according to the report, migrants inside Russia were allegedly pressured to enlist through raids, detention threats, document confiscation, fabricated criminal charges and abuse. Outside Russia, recruits were often allegedly lured through promises of civilian jobs, noncombat positions or pathways to Europe, only to be routed into military contracts they often could not read.

Of 16 prisoners of war interviewed for the report, 13 said they were told they would not be required to fight, but were later deployed to frontline positions, often within weeks.

The report also alleges many foreign recruits were funneled into so-called "meat assaults" — high-risk frontal attacks associated with severe casualty rates. Ukrainian estimates cited in the report say at least 3,388 foreign fighters have been killed, with some estimates suggesting one in five recruits may not survive deployment.

HEGSETH WARNS RUSSIA AS SIGNS POINT TO MOSCOW SHARING INTEL WITH IRAN 

"Despite the fact that many states are taking measures to curb recruitment, and although Russia claims it is no longer recruiting citizens from certain countries, the predatory recruitment continues. Ukrainian authorities predict that in 2026 Russia will engage more 18,500 foreign nationals, marking the highest annual figure since 2022," said Maria Tomak, associated researcher and advocacy expert at Truth Hounds.

"This underscores the continued relevance of our report. Our primary objective remains clear: to halt recruitment and to compel Russia to repatriate those already recruited."

The report stops short of claiming every foreign fighter was trafficked, noting some enlisted voluntarily for financial gain, but concludes there are reasonable grounds to believe at least some cases meet international definitions of trafficking in persons through deception, coercion and exploitation.

For investigators, the broader concern is that Russia’s war effort may now depend in part on a transnational manpower pipeline that weaponizes global inequality, drawing economically desperate men from around the world into one of Europe’s deadliest conflicts.

The report calls on governments, international organizations and Ukraine’s allies to crack down on recruitment networks, pressure Moscow diplomatically and push for repatriation of foreign nationals already caught in Russia’s military system.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment but did not receive a response.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and bypassing a legitimate Cabinet meeting before his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024.

The conviction for obstruction of justice and other charges comes on top of a life sentence he has already received on rebellion charges stemming from his baffling authoritarian push, which triggered the most serious crisis for the country’s democracy in decades.

Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court said the conservative former president sidestepped a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law, falsified documents to conceal the lapse, and deployed security officials "like a private army" to resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him in the weeks following his impeachment. Former President Yoon stood quietly as the verdict was delivered and made no comment.

SOUTH KOREAN COURT RULES EX‑PRESIDENT YOON SUK YEOL GUILTY IN INSURRECTION TRIAL

Yoo Jeong-hwa, one of Yoon’s lawyers, called the verdict "very disappointing" and said the legal team would appeal to the Supreme Court. Yoon has also appealed his life sentence.

A lower court in January sentenced Yoon to five years in prison but partially cleared him of abuse-of-power charges tied to the Cabinet meeting ahead of the martial law declaration, finding he was not responsible for the failure to attend of two members who were invited.

The Seoul High Court reversed that acquittal, finding him guilty on all counts and ruling that he violated the rights of those two as well as seven other Cabinet members who weren’t notified by convening only a select few to simulate a formal meeting.

SOUTH KOREAN PROSECUTOR SEEKS DEATH PENALTY FOR EX-PRESIDENT YOON OVER MARTIAL LAW DECLARATION: 'SELF-COUP'

Though brief, Yoon’s Dec. 3, 2024, martial law decree threw the country into a severe political crisis, paralyzing politics and high-level diplomacy and rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June.

Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by the liberal-led legislature and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025.

Following his suspension from office, he refused to comply with a Seoul court's warrant to detain him for questioning, setting up a standoff in which dozens of investigators arrived at the presidential residence in early January 2025 but were blocked by presidential security forces and vehicle barricades. He was detained later that month, released by another court in March, and was then re-arrested in July.

He remained in custody after that as a series of criminal trials, which are continuing, began.

Wednesday’s ruling came a day after the same court increased to four years the sentence of Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, for charges including accepting luxury gifts from the Unification Church, which sought political favors from Yoon’s government, and involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme.

Prosecutors in a separate trial last week also requested a 30-year prison term for Yoon over allegations that he deliberately tried to escalate tensions with North Korea in 2024 by ordering drone flights over Pyongyang as he sought to create justifiable conditions for martial law at home.

EXCLUSIVE: A surge in online claims warning of famine in Gaza is gaining traction across social media and international outlets, but newly surfaced data reviewed by Fox News Digital from the United Nations (U.N.), the Board of Peace and the Israeli military tells a sharply different story. 

The figures were shared at a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), a forum that coordinates international aid to the Palestinians, by the Board of Peace and described as based on reporting from the U.N.

Children aged 6 to 59 months admitted for acute malnutrition treatment rose from 2,807 cases in January 2025 to a peak of 17,384 in August 2025 before declining steadily to 3,043 in March 2026, an approximately 83% drop, according to the data. 

EYEWITNESS TO FIGHTING HAMAS TERRORISTS IN GAZA'S DEADLY NETZARIM CORRIDOR: 'THE CHALLENGES ARE CONSTANT'

The figures challenge a rapidly spreading narrative that Gaza is facing widespread famine, a claim gaining traction across global media and shaping international pressure on Israel.

The dataset also indicates that most remaining cases are now classified as "moderate" or linked to chronic medical and genetic conditions requiring sustained support.

Separate figures presented at the same meeting, collected by the Board of Peace, show a sharp increase in humanitarian aid delivery following the establishment of the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in October 2025. The U.S.-led, multinational hub, located in Israel, is designed to manage post-war Gaza stabilization. 

The Civil-Military Coordination Center oversees aid delivery, monitors a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, and coordinates efforts with 60 nations and organizations.

The figures show weekly truck deliveries into Gaza rose from approximately 1,300 to 4,200, while the percentage of trucks diverted en route dropped from roughly 90% to just 1% post-Civil-Military Coordination Center. 

The number of people reached with food assistance increased from about 400,000 before Civil-Military Coordination Center was established to approximately 2.1 million post-Civil-Military Coordination Center. 

And yet, April has seen a spike in messaging alleging "engineered starvation" in Gaza, according to HonestReporting, a U.S.-based pro-Israel media watchdog, with the narrative spreading from Hamas-linked channels to mainstream platforms in a matter of days. 

"On April 13, our team began seeing posts about soda and Nutella entering Gaza at the same time that Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of trying to ‘destroy the conditions of life,’" said Jacki Alexander, CEO of HonestReporting. "We used our proprietary AI tool to identify whether this was part of a broader pattern, and that analysis formed the basis of our memo."

"Since then, we’ve seen continued use of famine-related language across social media and ideologically aligned outlets," Alexander said. "Content claiming mass starvation has reached millions of views, and the narrative has expanded to include allegations about blocked medical supplies."

The HonestReporting report said the messaging quickly escalated, with viral posts claiming bakeries were shutting down, food supplies were critically low and an "entire generation" of children faced irreversible harm. The narrative, claimed the report, was further reinforced by coverage in outlets including Drop Site News, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss and Al Jazeera English.

"Hamas understands that its best leverage exists in the information war," Alexander said. 

"That’s why we developed these tools — to document narrative warfare and create a blueprint to dismantle it," Alexander told Fox News Digital. 

ISRAEL ANNOUNCES IMMEDIATE RESUMPTION OF GAZA AID AIRDROPS AMID GROWING HUNGER CRISIS

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies nonprofit, said that "What we’re seeing is a recurring pattern in this conflict where the humanitarian narrative is being weaponized."

Goldberg argued that the timing of the famine claims is tied to growing pressure on Hamas to disarm and to broader diplomatic efforts involving the United States, Arab states, and international partners.

"One of those weapons is trying to resurrect a narrative of famine," he said.

Hamas is seeking to "undermine" a coalition involved in shaping Gaza’s post-war future, according to Goldberg, and prevent consensus around next steps. 

"Hamas is the isolated party, and they do not want to disarm," he said.

Goldberg said that, unlike earlier stages of the war, the current environment makes it harder for such claims to take hold. 

"You now have months of ceasefire, and the U.N. and other partners have been directly involved in the humanitarian effort," he said.

"They all have the data … and they are all in a position where there’s a brick wall Hamas is going to find for its disinformation tactics," he added.

WARFARE EXPERT CALLS GAZA REBUILDING PLAN 'DISNEYLAND STRATEGY' TO DEFEAT HAMAS

"What worked against just Israel a year ago cannot work as well against an entire coalition," Goldberg said.

A senior Israeli military official told Fox News Digital that during the ceasefire, humanitarian throughput into Gaza averaged roughly 600 trucks per day, far above what the official said U.N. planning models estimated was required to meet baseline food needs.

"According to the U.N., it’s somewhere between 115 to 130 trucks a day," the official said, while emphasizing that recent aid levels have significantly exceeded that threshold.

The official said that despite temporary disruptions during the Iran conflict, crossings quickly reopened and aid volumes returned to high levels, arguing that current famine allegations are "completely false."

"It’s impossible with the amount of aid that is going in," the official said. "There is no shortage of food in the Gaza Strip for an extended period."

Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) similarly told Fox News Digital that Israel’s defense establishment believes Hamas is attempting to exploit global attention shifting toward Iran and Lebanon by pushing renewed humanitarian collapse narratives about Gaza.

Hamas has repeatedly sought throughout the war to portray "a deliberately false narrative of the collapse of the humanitarian system" in Gaza in order to increase international pressure on Israel and shape negotiations, sccording to COGAT. 

A security official said Hamas intensifies such campaigns whenever diplomatic pressure rises.

"Hamas is trying to stall for time and is using all means to maintain its grip on power," the official said. "Whenever negotiations over an agreement take place, Hamas intensifies false campaigns about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip in order to secure international support through fabricated crises."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the United Nations and the World Food Programme for comment. 

A German tourist has died after a venomous cobra featured in a snake show reportedly slithered up his pants and bit him on the leg, authorities said.

The freak accident occurred early April at a luxury resort destination in Egypt, according to the Bavarian State Police in Germany, which released details Monday.

"During the snake charmer's performance, one of the snakes crawled into the trousers of a 57-year-old man, resulting in a bite to the German tourist's leg," officials said. 

Police said the victim, whose identity was not released, was on vacation with two family members from the Unterallgäu region of Germany.

BILLIONAIRE'S DEATH AFTER SWALLOWING BEE RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT RARE CARDIAC REACTION

Authorities said the snake charmer event was part of a hotel entertainment program in the resort city of Hurghada, a popular Red Sea destination known for its upscale all-inclusive packages, as well as nearby desert and water excursions.

Two snakes, believed to be cobras, were used in the show, officials said. 

Investigators indicated that it is not uncommon for performers to allow snakes to interact closely with audience members, as some of the snakes were reportedly placed around guests’ necks during the act.

However, during one segment of the performance, a snake reportedly bit the German tourist after crawling into his clothing.

"He subsequently exhibited clear symptoms of poisoning and required resuscitation," officials said. 

He reportedly died shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

LAW STUDENT KILLED BY ELEPHANT DURING VACATION TO THAILAND: OFFICIALS

The results of a toxicological examination are still pending, Bavarian police said.

The investigation is being handled by Germany’s Memmingen Criminal Police Inspectorate under the direction of the Memmingen Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPPO).

Cobras are known for being highly venomous snakes. Their bite can lead to rapid respiratory failure and paralysis without prompt medical treatment.

Fox News Digital has reached out to MPPO for more information.   

A dangerous dissident republican group, the New IRA—linked to Iran and Hezbollah—claimed responsibility Tuesday for a car bomb outside a Belfast police station before warning of further attacks, according to reports.

The blast targeted a Police Service of Northern Ireland station in Dunmurry, with police increasing patrols after the group threatened to target officers at their homes.

A 66-year-old man was also arrested Tuesday under terrorism laws following the explosion, Reuters reported.

In a statement attributed to the "leadership of the IRA," the group said the bomb was meant to kill officers leaving the station. It warned that anyone cooperating with police "will be severely dealt with."

LAWMAKER SAYS IRAN TARGETED HIM IN PHISHING ATTACK DISGUISED AS TV INTERVIEW

A 2020 report by The Times, citing information from an MI5 informant, alleged connections among the New IRA, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The report said individuals linked to the group signed a book of condolences following the 2020 killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, raising concerns about possible external support, including weapons and funding.

"The New IRA–Hezbollah link is a useful data point in a much larger pattern: the operationalization of the so-called axis of resistance," former Defense Department intelligence officer Andrew Badger told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP VINDICATED AS EXPLOSIVE REPORT CONFIRMS IRAN SUPERVISES HOUTHI 'POLITICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS'

"This joins Russia, Iran, China, North Korea and an expanding bench of aligned non-state actors—into a working logistical and tradecraft network across the globe," Badger said.

"What we are watching is the maturing of a hybrid warfare model, pioneered and led by Russia and Iran, in which adversaries of the Western-led order increasingly share tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) across geographies and ideologies," said Badger, the co-author of "The Great Heist."

The New IRA’s latest bombing also follows a similar attempted car bomb attack on another police station outside Belfast just weeks ago. It is one of several militant groups that oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and want to end British rule in Northern Ireland and establish a united Ireland.

BRITAIN DRAGS FEET ON IRGC TERROR DESIGNATION AS IRAN-LINKED CENTER ALLEGEDLY SELLS EXTREMIST MERCHANDISE

It has carried out a series of attacks in recent years targeting police and security forces.

"The real challenge for local Irish police and security services is that these groups now compound each other’s learning," Badger added.

"A tactic battle-tested in one theatre can be in the hands of a dissident cell in another within months—and Western counter-terror structures simply aren’t wired to track that kind of cross-pollination," he said.

"A Lebanese Shia militia training a hard-left Irish republican faction would have looked exotic 10 years ago," he added.

"Today it is consistent with a wider pipeline including Russian sabotage cells using local criminal proxies in Europe and Iranian-directed assassination plots on U.K. and U.S. soil."

"The playbook of these actors—proxies, dual-use logistics, weapons-and-finance pipelines, exploitation of grievance movements in the target country—appear to be converging," Badger added.

EXCLUSIVE: As Iran’s opposition struggles to find a unifying figure amid war, repression and near-total internet blackouts, the husband of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi says his wife remains physically battered but politically unbroken, even as she sits in prison after what he describes as a brutal arrest and beating.

"Narges is a human rights activist and an advocate for civil society," her husband, Taghi Rahmani, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from Europe in exile. "In mobilizing society, and in organizing and shaping civil institutions, she is an active and courageous woman."

At a moment when Iran’s ruling establishment is reeling from the aftermath of U.S. and Israeli strikes, a fragile ceasefire, economic collapse and intensified crackdowns, Mohammadi’s name is emerging in a new light: Not only as a global symbol of resistance, but potentially as one of the few opposition figures whose legitimacy comes from suffering inside the system rather than exile, dynasty or factional politics.

INSIDE TEHRAN AFTER STRIKES: IRANIAN WOMAN DESCRIBES FEAR, CHECKPOINTS AND PEOPLE USED AS ‘HUMAN SHIELDS’

Mohammadi, awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize while imprisoned, has spent decades as one of Iran’s most prominent women’s rights and human rights activists. 

Trained as an engineer and later a journalist, she served as vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and became internationally known for campaigning against compulsory hijab laws, solitary confinement, prisoner abuse and the death penalty.

Now, according to her husband, her condition has worsened dramatically.

"Narges is currently detained in Zanjan prison," he said. "She was arrested in Mashhad during the month of Dey (around January) and was severely beaten. During her arrest, she received numerous blows, resulting in severe injuries to her chest, head, body and lungs."

Rahmani said prison medical authorities determined she should be transferred for treatment under her own physician’s supervision in Iran, but that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence is refusing the transfer and insisting she remain in Zanjan.

"Spiritually and mentally, Narges remains steadfast," he said. "She believes the Islamic Republic is not desirable for the Iranian people, and advocates for a system based on freedom, human rights and open relations with the world. Physically, however, she has sustained severe trauma and urgently requires medical attention."

Rahmani said the last time he spoke with his wife was the night before she left for Mashhad, Iran, where she was later arrested.

His account offers a rare inside look into the life of one of Iran’s most internationally recognized dissidents at a moment when questions over who could realistically lead opposition to the regime are intensifying.

"We hear a great deal about the Iranian opposition, yet media in the free world often lack a precise definition and a full understanding of what the Iranian opposition actually is," Iranian anti-regime activist Maryam Shariatmadari told Fox News Digital.

Shariatmadari, one of the most recognizable faces of Iran’s "Girls of Revolution Street" movement, a wave of anti-regime protests that began in 2017 when Iranian women publicly removed their hijabs and stood in defiance of the country’s mandatory veiling laws, was sentenced to prison in 2018 after publicly removing her hijab in protest.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR IRAN'S TERROR ARMY, THE IRGC, AFTER DEVASTATING MILITARY SETBACKS?

According to Shariatmadari, one camp consists of Iranians who view the 1979 Islamic Revolution itself as the foundational national disaster, believing Iran’s trajectory was derailed when the Shah fell. The second includes former revolutionaries, reformists, communist factions and groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), many of whom emerged from or once supported the revolutionary system before later opposing it. 

"The first group considers the 1979 revolution a disaster and seeks a return to Iran’s previous path," she said, while the second includes "those who participated in the revolution but later became opposition figures after being excluded from power."

That distinction, she argues, helps explain why Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, remains uniquely recognizable among many anti-regime Iranians despite spending decades outside the country.

Lisa Daftari, foreign policy analyst and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk news platform, told Fox News Digital, "Inside Iran, Pahlavi remains one of the only opposition figures with broad name recognition, and his message clearly resonated during the January protests, which is why his name still carries weight for many Iranians both inside the country and in the diaspora."

Pahlavi himself sharpened that message Friday after a series of European appearances, accusing both European politicians and journalists of ignoring the scale of Iranian suffering.

"I spent the past several weeks traveling across Europe, speaking to members of parliaments, governments, and the press," Pahlavi said in a video statement on his official X account. "My visit had one objective: to give a voice to the millions of Iranians held hostage by the Islamic Republic ... But I can now say with confidence that silencing, that censorship is not just happening at the hands of the regime in Iran, but by the international and particularly the European media."

EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE REVEALS 6-STEP PLAN TO EXERT PRESSURE ON TEHRAN'S REGIME

He went on to condemn what he described as European indifference to the mass killing of protesters and political executions, saying that across two press conferences in Stockholm and Berlin attended by more than 150 journalists, "not a single one" asked about the tens of thousands he says were killed during January’s crackdown or the political prisoners facing execution.

"Whether or not Europe stands with us ... I will fight for my people and my country," Pahlavi said. "We will fight until Iran is free."

Still, even some supporters acknowledge why the administration has hesitated to openly embrace him as a transitional figure.

Daftari warned that overt Western backing could backfire by making him appear externally imposed rather than domestically legitimized.

"The Trump administration’s decision not to more openly embrace him as a transitional figure likely reflects several factors: a deep wariness of making regime change the explicit end goal or appearing to engineer it after Iraq and Afghanistan, concern that overt U.S. backing could put an even bigger target on his back and a strategy that is currently focused less on anointing a successor and more on degrading the regime’s capacity to threaten its own people, the region and the United States," she said.

If Pahlavi represents dynastic memory and explicit regime-change politics, Mohammadi represents something profoundly different.

AS AIRSTRIKES RAIN DOWN ON THE IRANIAN REGIME, CAN A FRACTURED OPPOSITION UNITE TO LEAD IF IT FALLS?

Mohammadi’s place within that landscape is distinct due to her unique kind of legitimacy at a time when many Iranians are searching not only for opposition to the regime, but for a figure who embodies endurance under it.

For now, however, Rahmani warns that Iran’s domestic conditions may make any mass uprising extraordinarily difficult. 

"As you know, war serves as an excuse to suppress domestic forces within a country," he said. "This war has now increased the intensity of the regime’s actions against the opposition."

He argued that despite internal divisions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has effectively consolidated power, militarized the streets and severely weakened civil society.

"The Islamic Republic has practically taken control of the streets during wartime and has severely weakened Iran’s civil society, which is the guarantor of democracy. In our opinion, this war, under these conditions, is not to the benefit of Iran, nor to the benefit of the Iranian people."

That may be the defining challenge for Iran’s opposition today: not simply finding a leader, but surviving long enough under extraordinary repression for one to emerge.

Whether Mohammadi can become that figure remains uncertain. But from prison, her husband says, she has not stopped believing Iran’s future can be different.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

An 89-year-old gunman allegedly opened fire inside two Athens government buildings Tuesday, wounding at least four people in a rare outbreak of violence that rattled Greece’s tightly controlled gun landscape and ended with his arrest hours later.

Police said the suspect first stormed a social security office, went up to the fourth floor and fired, striking an employee in the leg. Officials said the gunman warned one worker to duck before pulling the trigger, though he didn't appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

"He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one," Alexandros Varveris, head of Greece’s National Social Security Fund, told state broadcaster ERT radio.

The wounded man was treated at the scene, but the suspect fled and later opened fire again inside a courthouse in another part of the city, where several people were wounded.

NINE DEAD, 13 IN SECOND TURKISH MASS SHOOTING IN TWO DAYS

Authorities said at least three women, all court employees, suffered minor injuries from ricocheting pellets, while media reported that a fourth woman was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Surveillance video aired by local media showed a man calmly walking down the street carrying what appeared to be a short-barreled shotgun.

SYNAGOGUE IN LONDON TARGETED IN ATTEMPTED 'ANTISEMITIC HATE CRIME,' UK POLICE SAY

Police later arrested the suspect near the city of Patra, about 130 miles west of Athens, and recovered the weapon.

The motive remains unclear, though state media reported the man left documents behind at the courthouse outlining his grievances.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.