EU: Police across Europe are investigating a spate of letter bombs sent to prominent EU figures this week.
They all appear to have been posted in the central Italian city of Bologna, where three recent attacks have been aimed at the president of the European commission, Romano Prodi.
German prosecutors said a package intercepted on Monday at the office of the head of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt could be linked to an Italian anarchist group. But the Italian police were reported to be focusing on a pan-European anarchist organisation with hundreds of members.
For the second time in 24 hours an explosive letter was discovered yesterday in the Hague. Dutch prosecutors said it was found at the offices of Eurojust, an arm of the EU which helps to co-ordinate investigations by Europe's police forces.
On Monday the police intercepted a device sent to the director of Europol, which handles criminal intelligence and advises EU states on organised crime.
Before the letter bomb addressed to the ECB's governor, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, was found, one had exploded on Saturday at Mr Prodi's home in Bologna. Mr Prodi, who opened the package, was not hurt.
A previously unknown group called the Informal Anarchic Federation (FAI) claimed responsibility for two small explosions near his home on December 21st, which now appear to have been the prelude to a campaign of terror. The claim was contained in a letter, again from Bologna, to the newspaper La Repubblica.
The package to Europol was sent in the name of a 19th century anarchist, Emile Henry.
The letter to the European Central Bank bore the name of a publishing house and an address in a street in Bologna which was the scene of a failed bomb attack on the police two years ago during the clashes at the Genoa G8 summit.
The letter to La Repubblica, extracts from which have been published by the newspaper, said the FAI was an association of different groups that had carried out similar attacks in recent years.
"Today, we have hit at the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order," said the letter, which the paper received on December 23rd.
It said the explosions had been set off near Mr Prodi's home "so the pig knows that the manoeuvres have only begun to get close to him and others like him".
The commission said yesterday that it had tightened its security precautions. "We have already reviewed our own situation in commission buildings," its spokesman, Mr Stefaan de Rynck said. "We have strengthened some measures."
La Repubblica reported that the Italian police had a list of 250 anarchists' names from across Europe believed to form part of a group founded earlier this year under the name of Euro-opposition.
The paper said the group's manifesto declared it to be against "Europe's masters, their war, their peace, their repression \ their control".
The Italian interior minister, Mr Giuseppe Pisanu, said anarchists could be hoping to profit from the disarray in the leftwing guerrilla group the Red Brigades, nine suspected members of which were arrested in October.