Blasts rock Athens

2004-05-05 07:20

Athens - Three bombs exploded near a police station in an Athens suburb early on Wednesday, without causing any injuries, police sources said.

The three blasts occurred within 45 minutes in a parking lot near the police station in the southern Athens suburb of Kallithea, a police source said.

According to state television channel NET, the adjacent police station suffered some damage.

An anonymous warning was issued ahead of the first explosion via a phone call to an Athens newspaper.

Police believe the blasts were staggered in the hope that the second and third bombs would injure police arriving on the scene after the first explosion.

They gave no details of the nature of the bombs or possible identity of the bombers.

According to NET, at least one of the bombs seemed to consist of dynamite attached to a timer.

Senior police officials were inspecting the site of the blasts.

Last September a similar, double bomb attack targetted an Athens court, injuring one policeman.

Police also foiled dynamite attacks against Athens branches of US bank Citibank and US insurer AIG late last year.

Greek security forces have been dismantling urban guerrilla groups, arresting members of the extremist groups November 17 and ELA, in a bid to boost security ahead of the Athens 2004 summer Olympics.

But in recent months, the country has seen a resurgence of low-level urban violence with a string of firebomb attacks, mainly against commercial bank branches.

Local mafia gangs in Athens occasionally attack rival groups with explosives.

Police believe such attacks are conducted by anarchist groups with no capacity to stage large-scale operations.

Athens is planning a big security operation for the Olympics which begin in 100 days.

They will be the first Summer Olympic Games since the the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States.

Athens has set aside more than 50 000 police and army personnel to safeguard the Games and is spending over &euros;650m on related security equipment.

- AFP