Greece stops all overseas air shipments after bombs found
By DPA, IANSWednesday, November 3, 2010
ATHENS - Greece stopped all overseas air shipments of mail and packages for 48 hours Wednesday following a wave of parcel bomb attacks at embassies, believed to be the work of far-left militants.
The blasts came as a cargo plane from Athens was forced to land at Bologna airport after Italian authorities were notified that it was carrying a suspicious package addressed to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The package caught fire when it was checked by authorities.
The explosions caused Greek aviation authorities to suspend the shipment of mail and packages abroad for 48 hours in order to make the necessary checks.
Bomb experts have detonated or investigated a total of 14 suspicious packages since Monday, including ones addressed to the embassies of Switzerland, Russia, Chile and Bulgaria in the Greek capital.
A parcel bomb sent from Greece was intercepted at German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and a day after two Greeks were arrested in possession of two bombs, including one addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Police bomb squads carried out controlled explosions of two suspected parcel bombs found at the cargo terminal of Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos airport. The packages were destined for the Europol police headquarters in the Netherlands and the European Court
of Justice in Strasbourg.
