A Greek urban guerrilla group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a December gun attack on the German ambassador’s residence in Athens that it said was a protest at austerity policies.

Anti-German sentiment has grown since Greece’s financial crisis erupted in 2009 and many Greeks blame Germany’s insistence on fiscal rigour for their economic woes.

The leftist People’s Fighters Group said it had launched the December attack to show solidarity with thousands of homeless and unemployed people in the crisis-hit country and to honour a 77-year old pensioner who shot and killed himself outside Parliament in an anti-austerity protest in 2012.

“As we were spraying gunfire on the German ambassador’s luxurious villa, we had thousands on our side, queuing up for a plate of food ... the unemployed and those working for €400,” the guerrilla group said in a statement.

Police found a copy of the claim in a bag in central Athens and police officials said they believed that it was credible.

The group called for more attacks during Greece’s rotating presidency of the European Union, which began last month. In the December shooting, assailants fired more than 60 shots at the Germany envoy’s high-security residence on a busy street in a northern Athens suburb. Some bullets pierced the walls of the house where Wolfgang Dold and his family were sleeping. No one was hurt.

Dold was replaced last month in what German authorities said was a pre-scheduled reassignment.

In 2013, the People’s Fighters Group claimed an attack on the headquarters of Greece’s co-ruling New Democracy party.

A bullet had lodged in a window in the party office of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras causing no injuries.

Greece, which holds the EU presidency until June, is struggling to pull itself out a six-year recession that has forced thousands out of work and eroded the living standards of millions.

The People’s Fighters Group called on people and like-minded groups to launch an “anti-European and anti-capitalist campaign through armed attacks and protests” in the coming months.

“The semester of Greece’s EU presidency offers significant opportunities, any way one looks at it. Let’s take advantage of this,” it said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.