Greek Ex-Prime Minister Hurt as Letter Bomb Explodes in Car, World News, US News
Greek Ex-Prime Minister Hurt as Letter Bomb Explodes in Car
May 25, 2017, at Three:47 p.m.
Greek police experts search for evidence at the scene of an explosion site in Athens, on Thursday, May 25, 2017.An explosion inwards a car in Greece’s capital wounded former Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on Thursday, police said. His injuries were not considered to be life-threatening. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis) The Associated Press
By ELENA BECATOROS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was injured after a letter bomb exploded inwards his car in a central Athens on Thursday in an attack that also left two Bank of Greece employees wounded.
Authorities said all three were conscious and hospitalized in stable condition.
“I unequivocally condemn the attack against Lucas Papademos,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was attending a NATO summit in Brussels, tweeted from his official account. “I wish a speedy recovery to him and the people who accompanied him.”
Police were on alert to determine whether any other parcel bombs might have been sent out, and were checking postal and courier services.
There was no instantaneous claim of responsibility for the attack, but Greek politicians have been targeted in the past by militant far-left and anarchist groups.
A statement from the Greek Health Ministry said Papademos, Sixty-nine, was being treated for wounds in his right hip and upper bod. He served as prime minister for six months in 2011-2012 and is also a former deputy governor of the European Central Bank.
“We are saddened by the attack against our former colleague, Lucas Papademos, a plucky public servant of Greece and Europe,” European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said in a statement.
A police official said the explosion occurred when Papademos opened an envelope inwards the car. Anti-terrorism police were at the hospital where Papademos was being treated in order to interview him on the details of the envelope.
A 2nd police official said one of the other two wounded in the blast told anti-terrorism police that he had transferred Papademos the mail earlier, and that before doing so he had put it through an X-ray machine and nothing suspicious displayed up.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending official announcements.
The government described the blast as a terrorist attack.
“It is visible and self-evident that the Greek government unreservedly and categorically condemns the attack against the former prime minister, Mr. Papademos,” said government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos.
Earlier this year, a group called Conspiracy Cells of Fire, claimed responsibility for sending parcel bombs to the German Finance Ministry and the Paris office of the International Monetary Fund, where a puny explosion injured one person.
The group had also claimed responsibility for a spate of parcel bombings in two thousand ten targeting several embassies in Athens and the offices of European leaders abroad. Most of the devices were intercepted or ruined by police, but one device injured a parcel company employee in Greece.
In the same year, a parcel bomb disguised as a bounty exploded at the office of the Public Order Minister in Athens, killing one of the minister’s top aides.
In Thursday’s attack, police said Papademos’ police escort had been in a car behind the former prime minister’s vehicle, and that the other two people wounded were Bank of Greece employees.
Authorities cordoned off the area, and forensics experts were investigating the scene for evidence. The former prime minister’s car was parked by the side of the road, in front of its escort vehicle. Papademos’ car bore little sign of harm, except for buckling on two doors.
The explosion bruised the car’s windshield, leaving no other sign of harm, but startled bystanders.
“I heard a noisy bang, thought at very first it was a car crash or a burst tire,” said Stelios Tavlaridis, who keeps a shop a dozen meters from the blast site.
“The police were there almost instantly, in no time. It was indeed amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Tavlaridis said.
Conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose brother-in-law, conservative politician Pavlos Bakoyannis, was shot dead in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine by members of far-left terror group November 17, voiced “rage and anguish” at the attack against Papademos.
“At some point we realize in this country that dealing with terrorism must take the highest priority. Terrorists are enemies of democracy,” he said.
A respected economist, Papademos headed a provisional coalition government credited with preventing the collapse of the country’s international bailout at the time. He also served as governor of the Bank of Greece inbetween one thousand nine hundred ninety four and 2002, when the country adopted the euro currency.
Derek Gatopoulos, Raphael Kominis, and Yorgos Karahalis contributed to this report. Go after Becatoros at http://www.twitter.com/ElenaBec
Copyright two thousand seventeen The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.