SECURITY was stepped up in sensitive areas of Cyprus yesterday after a wave of mail-bomb explosions in Greece, police said.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said the force is taking “additional security measures” at certain locations, especially entry points into the republic.
“Intensified checks are also carried out at interests which could possibly be the target of a terrorist act,” Katsounotos said.
Small bombs exploded at the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens yesterday and a parcel containing explosives was intercepted at the German chancellor’s office, the latest in a wave of attacks by suspected Greek leftist guerrillas.
Police had already arrested two Greeks aged 22 and 24 on Monday in possession of two bombs including one addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The latest incidents took the total of actual or suspected bombs to 11 since Monday.
“It seems that this is a continuation of yesterday’s attacks and that Greek guerrillas are behind it, but we are still investigating,” police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis said.
The wave of bombs may be intended to galvanise an anti-government vote in Sunday’s local elections.
Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Socialists already fear a backlash against the radical tax hikes, pension freezes and cuts in spending and public sector wages they have imposed.
The attackers may also want to demonstrate that they are still active after the arrests of more than a dozen suspected members of guerrilla groups this year.
The two arrested men were both charged with participating in a terrorist group and with illegal possession of explosives and weapons, a court official said.
No one was injured at the Swiss or Russian embassies, and Greek police said the continued from page one
bombs that had been found were mostly too small to kill anyone.
“When the external packaging was removed, the contents burst into flames,” a Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Other parcel bombs found yesterday included one outside parliament addressed to the Chilean embassy, one each at the Chilean and Bulgarian embassies, and one addressed to the German embassy, at the offices of a courier company.
In German, police intercepted a package containing explosives sent from Greece to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office in Berlin.
Addressed to Merkel personally, the suspect parcel was found in the mailroom of her chancellery while she was out of the country in Belgium, the government said.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the package contained explosives, was sent from Greece two days ago and appeared to be linked to the other parcel bombs.
Security experts rendered the package harmless and no one was hurt, though the government said it appeared to have been “capable of harming people”. German media said it contained gunpowder and listed the “Greece Economy Ministry” as its return address.
Meanwhile two suspect packages detonated by police at the cargo terminal of Athens airport contained explosives and were addressed to Europol and the European Court of Justice, police officials said.
“Both packages contained explosive devices, they’ve been detonated. One was destined to go to Europol and the other one to the European Court of Justice,” one of the officials said.
In Greece, Vassilis Pergalias at the Institute for Security and Defence Analysis said the attackers wanted to “terrorise people and mar Greece’s image abroad, in an adverse economic environment and just before (Sunday’s) local elections”.
“They are doing it to impress,” he said. “They want to create a sentiment of fear. They wouldn’t benefit from loss of life, because then the public would turn against them.”
On Monday, a bomb blew up at a courier office in Athens, slightly wounding an employee. Police also intercepted a bomb at another delivery company destined for the Dutch embassy, and found another addressed to the Belgian embassy in the possession of the arrested suspects.
