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Athens: powerful car bomb explodes in the middle of downtown
A booby-trapped bomb exploded outside a Bank of Greece building at 05:55 Thursday morning after two anonymous phone calls warning the car contained “75 kg of explosives”. None was hurt from the blast, but the powerful detonation caused damage to building and shops. Two main roads in downtown Athens have been cordoned by police as anti-terror units investigate. The bomb exploded in the middle of downtown, in an area with many institutions, banks and theaters that is supposed to be well guarded.
The terrorism strike comes one day after debt-ridden Greece announced its return to international bond markets and one day before German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the Greek capital in order to express solidarity with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and the Greek people.
Greek media report that a warning phone call went to news website Zougla.gr at 5:11 a.m. and a second one to Efimerida Twn Syntaktwn daily four minutes later. The anonymous caller warned that “the car contained 75 kilograms of explosives”, that it would go off 45 minutes later and that “the building should be evacuated.”
At this time of the dawn there was mostly security guards in the buildings.
Police and anti-terror units rushed to the spot and cordoned the area.
The car was parked outside a building of Bank of Greece on Amerikis Street, opposite of a building where the Troika’s representatives have offices. There were two guards inside the BoG but none was hurt.
The car was a Nissan Sunny that was stolen on April 5th 2014.
According an eye witness, one perpetrator parked the vehicle in Amerikis Street early Thursday and left with a motorcycle that had been following the car. The car driver was allegedly wearing a helmet. The warning phone calls occurred a little later.
Greek police considers it is premature to draw conclusions about who is behind the attack, even though two men charged with terrorism are on the run: one is Christodoulos Xiros from “November 17″ organization and one is Nikos Maziotis from “Revolutionary Struggle”.
The government condemned the attack and government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said: “The goals are obvious, but the government will not allow terrorists to impose their own agenda.”
So far no organization claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Source: http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2014/04/10/athens-powerful-car-bomb-explodes-in-the-middle-of-downtown/
