Series of bomb attacks target embassies in Athens (Second Lead)

ATHENS - A bomb exploded Tuesday outside the Swiss Embassy in Athens while Greek police later detonated a series of suspect packages addressed to at least four other embassies.

Swiss Embassy officials said the small bomb exploded after an individual on a motorbike threw a package into the embassy’s garden.

A parcel bomb addressed to the Chilean Embassy was also discovered in a mail van outside parliament. Parcel bombs were also detonated by bomb officials at the Russian, Chilean and Bulgarian embassies and one addressed to the German embassy was intercepted at the offices of a courier company.

Other suspect packages addressed to the embassies of Chile and Panama was found to contain no explosives.

Only one person was reported injured Tuesday when a parcel bomb addressed to the Mexican Embassy left a female worker at a courier company with injuries to her hands after the package exploded.

Tuesday’s explosions came one day after police arrested two suspects carrying a parcel bomb addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Belgian and Dutch embassies in Athens.

Reports said police believed there was no connection with Al Qaeda and that the two men arrested were suspected to be linked to the Greek far-left militant group known as Fire Conspiracy Cells.

Greece has been plagued by a wave of bomb and gas cannister attacks by far-left and militant groups since the police killing of a teenager in Athens in December 2008 which sparked the worst riots the country has seen in decades.

Earlier this year a senior official at the country’s public order ministry was killed in a letter-bomb blast which was addressed to the minister.