Galery

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A strong explosion shook the area around the District Court in the Athens district of Ambelokipi at 08:22 this morning. The bomb was in the trunk of a motorcycle stolen yesterday and parked in front of the courthouse.

A strange man called ALTERA TV about an hour earlier and warned that a bomb is expected to explode after 40 minutes. Then followed a second anonymous call in the head office of Eleftherotypia newspaper in which the unknown man specified where the bomb will explode.

The police succeeded to evacuate the staff and the people that were in the building resulting in no victims or injuries. The courthouse and neighbouring buildings were seriously damaged, several parked cars burnt and eyewitnesses claim that the explosions were more than one.

They have just announced from the police that the motorcycle in which the blast was placed was stolen yesterday from another Athens neighbourhood – Galatsi. The police also stated that the anonymous man who made the warning phone calls gave an accurate description of the motorcycle and its registration number. Thanks to this detailed description and the long time interval between the warning and the blast the police managed to evacuate the courthouse. The blast was of great power but the perpetrators obviously did not want to take lives.

A bomb also placed in a motorcycle exploded in front of the Ministry of Finance on Syntagma Square in Athens in 2005.

The Greek police have just evacuated the tax administration building in the Kalithea neighbourhood. There was a phone call to a daily Athenian edition warning for a second explosion, this time in Kalithea.

Further detials will be submitted later in the day.