A bomb disguised as a gift exploded inside the Greek public order ministry in Athens tonight, killing a police officer who was a close ministerial aide, in Greece’s highest profile attack in years.
“It was a terrorist act,” government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis said.
Police said the package exploded about 25 metres away from public order minister Michalis Chryssohoidis’s office on the seventh floor of the heavily guarded ministry, which is located just outside the capital’s centre.
Mr Chryssohoidis, who was unharmed despite being in his office at the time of the blast, said he had “lost a valuable and beloved associate”.
The police officer who was killed, Giorgos Vassilakis, was a 50-year-old father of two. Authorities said there were no other injuries, but that the powerful explosion had caused extensive damage inside the ministry.
“The cowardly murderers will be brought to justice, to be tried in accordance with the constitution and our laws,” a visibly shaken Mr Chryssohoidis told media outside the ministry shortly after the explosion.
“We will continue our struggle to keep our citizens, neighbourhoods and cities safe.” The minister said the package had been meant for him.
“We say one more time that we are not afraid and we will not be terrorised,” he said.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
A number of small extreme left wing and radical anarchist groups operate in Greece, and have carried out bomb attacks and shootings in the capital.
But the vast majority are small devices planted outside banks, foreign companies or car dealerships late at night and do not cause any injuries. It is very rare for bombings in Athens to cause fatalities.
Authorities sealed the ministry building, barring anyone from entering or leaving. Officials said it was not immediately clear how the package had been delivered - whether it had been hand delivered or sent by a courier or in the mail.
Attacks in Greece increased after the fatal police shooting in December 2008 of an Athens teenager, which sparked Greece’s worst riots in decades.
Over the past nine months, police have arrested more than a dozen people accused of belonging to two small militant groups that claimed responsibility for a string of bombings.
In March, a 15-year-old Afghan boy was killed when he opened a bag containing a bomb that had been planted outside a management institute in an Athens neighbourhood.
The boy’s 10-year-old sister suffered serious facial injuries that damaged her sight.
The boy was the first person to be killed in a bomb attack in Athens since 1999, when a blast outside a hotel killed a conference worker.
Reuters