Bomb kills woman at Cypriot owned Athens Intercontinental

A CYPRIOT-OWNED Athens hotel was yesterday counting the cost of a bomb attack by an extremist group, which left one of its guests dead.

The bomb went off at the Intercontinental Hotel on Syngrou Avenue near the city centre just before midnight on Tuesday, killing Virginia Constantinou, 39, and injuring Yiannis Kanavas, 28.

Responsibility for the blast was yesterday claimed by ‘Epanastatiki Pirines’ (Revolutionary Cells), described as a left-wing terrorist group by Greek police. The group, which gave a 10-minute prior warning of the attack, said they had targeted the hotel because it was to host a conference by US magazine The Economist. The stated aim was to target US interests in retribution for the Nato air strikes on Yugoslavia.

Constantinou and Kanavas were both working for the firm setting up the Economistconference, which was to start last night.

The Intercontinental – which suffered thousands of pounds’ worth of damage in the blast – is owned by Cypriot businessman, Dakis Ioannou. Cypriots in general are strongly opposed to the Nato strikes.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.