GREECE: Controlled detonation carried out at the Bulgarian embassy after Swiss embassy bomb in Athens

Record ID: 356343

  • Title: GREECE: Controlled detonation carried out at the Bulgarian embassy after Swiss embassy bomb in Athens
  • Date: 3rd November 2010
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (NOVEMBER 2, 2010) (REUTERS) STREET IN FRONT OF BULGARIAN EMBASSY CLOSED, POLICE GUARDING ENTRANCE TO STREET POLICE OFFICER GUARDING SITE STREET IN FRONT OF BULGARIAN EMBASSY BULGARIAN EMBASSY BUILDING BULGARIAN FLAG POLICE SURROUND SITE VAN BELONGING TO ANTI- TERROR SQUAD IN AREA EMBASSY WITH FLAG WAVING ON EMBASSY
  • Embargoed: 18th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA9T1IEL7L98FZ96I12JOE41450
  • Story Text: Police teams in Athens conducted controlled explosions on suspicious packages across the city on Tuesday (November 2) in an operation following a blast at the Swiss embassy.
    They detonated a bomb at the Bulgarian embassy and, according the police sources, carried out controlled explosions on packages outside the parliament building and at a courier company. Another suspicious package at the Chilean embassy was being examined, sources said.
    The events came a day after four small parcel bombs were found in the capital.
    In the Bulgarian embassy incident, police were called there following the delivery of a package suspected to be a bomb. They carried out a controlled blast on the package and afterwards confirmed it was an explosive device. There were no reports of injuries.
    Around the same time a bomb exploded at the Swiss embassy grounds, also with no reports of injuries.
    The police later said the package at the parliament was found to contain nothing suspicious.
    On Monday, police arrested two men on suspicion of planting two parcel bombs while being in possession of another two.
    A small parcel bomb addressed to the Mexican embassy exploded at a courier office on Monday (November 2), while another addressed to the Dutch embassy at another courier office was detonated.
    Police arrested two men in relation to the parcels, and two more parcel bombs were found in their possession and detonated, addressed to the Belgian embassy and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. A clerk suffered minor hand burns from the first parcel bomb that exploded.
    Police suspect domestic militant groups for Monday's bombs, which they said were small and would not have caused life threatening damage. The two arrested men, aged 22 and 24, are to appear before a magistrate. One of them is wanted in relation with a previous bombing and for his connection to a local guerrilla group that has carried out attacks in Athens in the past.
    Domestic guerrilla groups, who are anti-establishment, have been operating in Athens in the last years, targeting banks, police and politicians with bombs. Two people have been killed in previous bomb attacks, one of them the aide to the Civil Protection Minister after it was delivered to the ministry.
    The motives behind the parcel bombs are not yet clear or why the particular embassies were targeted. Greece holds local government elections on November 7.
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