A police car is seen in front of the home of PASOK deputy Mimis Androulakis in Kareas, eastern Athens, where a bomb detonated yesterday afternoon. The blast is believed to have been carried out by the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, which has claimed responsibility for a series of bloodless attacks in recent months.

A time bomb that detonated outside the Athens home of a ruling PASOK deputy yesterday afternoon, causing damage but no injuries, was believed to be the work of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire terror group, sources told Kathimerini.

The bomb exploded shortly after 2 p.m. outside the entrance to the block in Kareas, eastern Athens, where Mimis Androulakis has an apartment on the second floor. Fifteen minutes earlier, an anonymous caller had telephoned the police’s emergency line to warn of the impending blast.

According to police, the bomb comprised a cooking pot containing explosives and two timers, almost exactly the same composition as the device used in an attack on the Athens home of conservative New Democracy MEP Marietta Giannakou last month for which the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire subsequently claimed responsibility.

Androulakis was not at the apartment at the time of yesterday’s blast but his cleaner was, and told officers that she had heard shuffling outside the door and opened it to see a bag, which had contained the bomb. She told police that she had taken the bag downstairs and left it outside the entrance to the apartment block, without looking inside.

The attack came a day after a Supreme Court prosecutor assigned a probe into the activities of the terror group, which is relatively new, having become active in the past year. Three suspected members of the group have been in detention since September when police raided the organization’s suspected hideout in the northern Athens district of Halandri. Arrest warrants have been issued for another six suspected group members whose fingerprints were found at the hideout.