Athens, Greece - A man with a knife attacked a Greek-American couple at the base of the popular Acropolis site in Athens shortly after it opened on Tuesday, local police said.

According to Athens police, the man attacked the couple at around 8:05AM local time, five minutes after the opening of the gates to the 5th-century BC Parthenon temple, which at its summer peak receives an average 17,000 visitors a day.

He caused minor injuries to the hand of the 48-year-old woman, while the 53-year-old man suffered more serious injuries to his leg. Both were taken to hospital but are not in any danger, according to the Greek news agency ANA.

Police arrested the attacker who, according to Greek media, is in his sixties and suffers from mental health issues. He was reportedly threatening random passers-by with the knife prior to the attack.

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Greek courts had on several occasions ordered him to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, according to the news website News247.

The attack was an extremely rare event at one of Europe's most visited tourist sites in Greece's busy and generally safe capital city.

None of the city's busy tourists sites were closed as a result of the attack, and there is no expectation of a prolonged or continued risk.

"We just heard people screaming and a crowd running ​away, so ​we ⁠obviously took cover," Tracey Dewey, a visitor from South Africa, told Reuters.