An anonymous telephone call warning that a bomb had been planted at the Omonia metro station ruffled commuters just before 3.30 p.m. yesterday and prompted police to cordon off the area. Metro authorities said the station would be closed temporarily, while service was also disrupted on the Athens-Piraeus urban electric railway (ISAP) between the Thiseion and Attiki stops for a few hours. Police and sniffer dogs were called in but failed to find any suspect devices. A few minutes later, private television channel Alter received a call from an anonymous caller who warned that a bomb had been planted at the channel’s premises. Again police were called but found nothing.

A 22-year-old student was recovering in a Thessaloniki hospital yesterday after being mugged by four unidentified assailants in the early hours on the main campus of the northern city’s Aristotle University. The victim said he was robbed of his wallet, which contained cash and several important personal documents, and beaten by the four men. Doctors did not say yesterday how serious his injuries were.

The Athens Water and Sewerage Company (EYDAP) said yesterday that it will stop pumping water from Lake Yliki, northwest of Attica, to Athens because the water levels at the Mornos and Evinos reservoirs are high enough to comfortably supply the Greek capital following heavy rainfall this winter. EYDAP said that the move would also help to save electricity during the summer, when demand for power is particularly high, as well as saving the water company money. EYDAP said it would resume pumping water from Yliki when or if necessary.

While much of the country was bathed in brilliant sunshine yesterday, farmers in Trikala, central Greece, were counting the cost of the damage wreaked by a freak hailstorm. State assessors went to the area to examine for themselves claims that crops, greenhouses and equipment for livestock farming over an area of some 300 hectares had been damaged by hailstones.

Police in central Greece yesterday were seeking the perpetrators of a raid on a gas station a few kilometers outside the town of Karditsa. According to police, the culprits disabled the alarm system protecting the gas station, which is situated on the national road, and made off with a safe. The owner of the gas station told police that his records show that the safe contained 21,117 euros in cash. Also yesterday, two armed robbers held up a branch of National Bank in Kalogreza, north of Athens, fleeing with an undetermined sum. No one was hurt in the raid, which occurred at 8.30 a.m. when there were no customers on the premises.

Three people were killed late on Sunday when two vehicles were involved in a head-on collision on the old highway connecting Athens with Thessaloniki. Police had released no details late yesterday about the exact location or circumstances of the crash.