Greeks find 4 mail bombs; 2 men held

November 02, 2010|Associated Press

ATHENS — Greek police foiled four attempted parcel bomb attacks yesterday that allegedly targeted President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and three embassies in Athens. One of the devices exploded at a delivery service, leaving a worker hospitalized with burns.

Motorcycle police later arrested two Greek men, ages 22 and 24, several hundred meters from the blast site in central Athens.

Police said the men were carrying handguns and bullets in waist pouches, and one of them wore a bulletproof vest, a wig, and a baseball cap.

Police said domestic political extremists were suspected, and one of the two men detained had been wanted in connection with an anarchist group. Authorities said the bombs were not particularly powerful, and no link was made with the international mail-bomb plot based in Yemen.

Police released photographs of the two suspects, but did not identify them.

Parts of the city center were cordoned off for more than an hour around midday as the three unexploded bombs, allegedly found at a different delivery service and in the suspects’ backpacks, were defused in a series of controlled explosions.

Other targets were the embassies of Mexico, the Netherlands, and Belgium, police said.