ATHENS/BERLIN: Parcel bombs exploded at the Russian and Swiss Embassies in Athens Tuesday and devices sent to three others were intercepted, the latest in a wave of attacks linked to left-wing extremists, police said.
The packages were similar to four devices addressed to embassies in the Greek capital and intercepted on Monday, including one addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“A Greek organization belonging to the anti-establishment movement is very likely” behind the attacks, police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis said.
Two men were arrested when one of the packages exploded at a courier company on Monday, burning a female staffer’s hand and enabling police to track down three more parcels.
Accomplices probably mailed the remaining five packages discovered on Tuesday from other locations on Monday, a police source said.
A package intercepted Tuesday at German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s offices contained explosives and was linked to the mail bombing campaign in Greece, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. De Maiziere told reporters that the parcel had been sent from Greece and that the explosive device was built in the same way as the bomb that exploded at the Swiss Embassy in Athens earlier Tuesday.
Meanwhile, police in Athens on Tuesday destroyed two suspect parcels at the Eleftherios Venizelos airport’s cargo terminal believed to be linked to the parcel bomb plot targeting foreign embassies. The parcels contained books carved out to hold explosives, the police said.
The recipients were the police organization Europol in the Netherlands and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, news reports said.
No one was injured at either the Russian or Swiss Embassies in Athens where packages ignited, police said. The parcel left at the entrance to the Swiss Embassy burst into flames when it was being examined by staff, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said. “The burst of flame occurred when employees were removing the external wrapping of the package,” the ministry said.
Police said in a statement that a second booby-trapped package exploded at the Russian Embassy without causing injury, adding the package was already being treated with suspicion by staff.
Police said a total of five parcel bombs had been discovered in the capital on Tuesday. Controlled explosions were carried out by police on suspect packages addressed to the German, Chilean and Bulgarian Embassies.
The package intended for the Chilean Embassy was destroyed outside the Greek Parliament after the courier carrying it asked police stationed nearby to check it and explosives were detected inside, the police said.
The parcel for the German Embassy was destroyed by controlled explosion outside a courier company where the embassy had returned it as suspect.
Police arrested two men suspected of links to a far-left group on Monday after the discovery of the first booby-trapped packages.
A Greek Foreign Ministry official said that embassy security had been strengthened and missions were warned to take extra vigilance when handling correspondence.
The two men arrested on Monday, aged 22 and 24, were armed with handguns. One of them was also wearing a bulletproof jacket and a wig.
The development raised new questions about the security of cargo and parcels. People in the transportation industry said Tuesday that there are few security checks on packages transported within the European Union by road or rail.
