Greek police on high alert following attack on Papademos (pics+vid)
The Greek police counter-terrorism squad launched a full-scale investigation following the explosion in the car of former Greek premier Lucas Papademos on Thursday evening, which injured him and two others.
Based on the evidence so far, the blast was caused by a letter-bomb that Papademos opened while his car was passing through the junction of 3rd September Street and Marnis Street in downtown Athens.
The vehicle belonged to the Bank of Greece was a Mercedes armoured car, which police believe did not allow the force of the blast to dissipate. This resulted in greater injuries for Papademos, the driver and one other man accompanying them in the car, who were also Bank of Greece staff.
Two police security escorts following Papademos in a second car were unable to do anything, apart from extricating the three injured men from the vehicle and arranging for their transfer to hospital.
The counter-terrorism squad is currently trying to find out where Papademos picked up the correspondence that included the letter-bomb and thus track it back to its source, as well as determining how it got past security screenings to get into his hands. The former premier is expected to supply most of the details himself, however, when he is able to give evidence.
According to the information available so far, Papademos had just left his office at the Bank of Greece and was returning home, to the northern suburbs of Athens.
Police explosives' experts are also examining the remains of the device to determine the type of mechanism and explosives used. Police sources said the initial findings indicate this was gunpowder used in fireworks.
Authorities are also on alert in case similar letter-bombs have been sent to other recipients and are looking into possible links with the package-bombs sent to the German finance ministry and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Paris office last March. The terror group "Conspiracy of Cells of Fire" had later claimed responsibility for those attacks with a note saying that they were carried out "as part of the campaign of the second act of the Nemesis Plan" and promising that a proclamation would follow.
Source: ana-mpa
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