Police arrest three over bomb attack

Trio made gas canister devices

Authorities yesterday expressed their satisfaction over the arrest of three people caught placing an improvised explosive device under a municipal police car in the Athens suburb of Palaio Faliron. At least one gas canister ignited, causing minor damage to the car, but there were no injuries.

The arrests were the first following several months of nighttime bomb attacks, mostly against police targets.

“Hard work and cooperation always bring results,” Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said from Beijing, where he is on an official visit.

The three suspects are a 20-year-old male student from Piraeus Technical College, a 21-year-old female student from the

Athens University of Economics and Business and a 22-year-old man who was arrested in 2003 for his alleged part in rioting during an anti-war rally in Athens. All three are believed to belong to one of the two largest anti-establishment groups based in the anarchist stronghold of Exarchia, central Athens.

The three are believed to have been behind bomb attacks on five banks since the end of last year, according to police officials who said that an anonymous caller had telephoned a television or radio channel after every attack, each time claiming responsibility under a different name.

The suspects had been under police surveillance for several months and fell into a police ambush in Palaio Faliron. Police had tracked their movements yesterday, spotting the 22-year-old leaving a supermarket in Petroupolis carrying several bags full of gas canisters.

The three suspects, caught in the act of placing the gas canisters under the car, had removed the batteries from their mobile phones to avoid being tracked, police said.

Officers were questioning the suspects about possible connections to previous attacks, including one against a newspaper office in Athens on Monday.

In a separate incident early yesterday, around 10 people were spotted throwing petrol bombs at a bank in the Athens district of Peristeri, causing widespread damage but no injuries. The perpetrators eluded arrest.