Greek police said a bomb placed in a small van exploded outside the Athens Stock Exchange on Wednesday, lightly injuring a passer-by and causing extensive damage to the building and to parked cars.
A second bomb outside a government building in the northern city of Thessaloniki caused only minor damage.
Both attacks were preceded by anonymous warning calls to Greek media, but there was no claim of responsibility. Police said a Greek far-left militant group called Revolutionary Struggle, best known for firing a rocket at the U.S. embassy in Athens in 2007, was suspected in the stock exchange blast.
“The methodology points to Revolutionary Struggle,” police spokesman Panayiotis Stathis said.
The stock exchange blast in Athens’ central Votanikos district blew out windows at the bourse and a neighbouring car dealership, and damaged parked cars and trees, police said. They said the bomb exploded at 5:38 am (2:38 GMT), in a stolen van that had been parked on a side-street outside the building.
One woman was lightly injured by flying glass.
“The blast caused extensive damage, to the stock exchange building itself and to nearby cars, five of which were completely destroyed,” Stathis said.
Investigators closed off a busy highway outside the stock market building.
Police said the second bomb had been hidden in a telephone exchange box outside the Ministry for Macedonia and Thrace. They said the time device exploded at 4:56 am (2:56 GMT), breaking windows in the ministry building.
Greek militants have stepped up attacks following the fatal police shooting of an Athens teenager last December, which sparked the country’s worst rioting in decades.
In the bloodiest incident so far, gunmen shot dead an anti-terrorist officer guarding a witness in Athens on June 17. In July, terrorists targeted a McDonalds restaurant in central Athens, causing extensive damage but no injury.
Small anarchist groups have also intensified arson attacks on symbols of wealth and state power, to protest government social and economic policies.
