It is becoming well known among regular visitors to Greece that a traveller and his/her money are all too easily parted by pickpockets at work on the Athens Metro. All of us know one such victim; Rosemarie and I know three or four. On Saturday — despite the care this knowledge prompts us to take with our possessions — we became victims ourselves. At Syntagma station at the hub of the city, struggling to get off a packed train, we were surrounded by what we later realised were a gang of thieves. In the melee, Rosemarie’s handbag was unzipped, a purse containing nearly £300 was stolen, and the bag zipped up again.

The theft went undiscovered for more than an hour. Sitting shaded from the sun in a back-street cafe, Rosemarie went into her bag for cash to pay our bill, and found the purse had gone. Then we remembered the group of men who, seeming to be preparing to occupy our vacated seats by the window, had actually advanced in our direction with quite another purpose.

We had seats because, at the start of our journey, the train was completely empty, like the one pictured at the airport above. As we travelled to Syntagma, calling at 11 stations on the way, the train steadily became more and more crowded. This is always the case on this route. By Evangelismos, the last stop before our destination, there was scarcely room for more to board. Interestingly, it was here that we were joined by the young men we later identified as the thieves. As a consequence of having our seats, we were as far as could be from the doors, thereby making us more vulnerable to attack.

The obvious solution to what is clearly becoming a serious problem is for the authorities to operate dedicated trains for airport passengers, in the manner of the Heathrow Express. Until this happens, potential passengers would do well to remember that to be forewarned is not necessarily to be forearmed.