An extreme-left group, Revolutionary Struggle, has said it was behind a powerful van bomb blast which caused widespread damage inside the Athens stock exchange and injured a woman, police said Wednesday. They said the claim would be published Thursday in a Greek weekly paper.
The dawn bomb on September 2 destroyed eight cars, tore through windows on the side of the stock exchange building and sprayed glass and debris inside.
The same day a second bomb hidden in a cooking pot exploded near a government building in the northern city of Thessaloniki, causing some damage but no injuries.
Phone warnings were made before both of the latest attacks in a series that has targeted financial institutions and government buildings in recent months.
Greek media said suspicion for the Athens blast immediately fell on Revolutionary Struggle, which features on a European Union list of terrorist groups. Best known for a rocket attack on the US embassy in 2007, it claimed responsibility earlier this year for a powerful car bomb placed outside the Athens headquarters of US banking group Citibank that was defused by police.
It also exploded a bomb outside a Citibank branch in the Athens suburb of Psychiko that caused significant damage, attacked an Athens tax office in July and a branch of Eurobank in May. Leftist extremists have launched a number of attacks on police targets since riots last December triggered by the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old youth.