Athens Mall Bombing Leaves Two Guards Wounded
Greek authorities on Sunday condemned a bomb blast at an Athens shopping mall that left two security guards lightly injured.
In the latest in a series of violent attacks, an explosive device went off at 10:40 am (0840 GMT) on the first floor of the multi-story Athens Mall, in a northern suburb of the Greek capital, where shops as well as a branch of the National Bank of Greece are located.
The mall is ordinarily busy on Sundays but had been evacuated after two warning calls were made to a newspaper and a news website about an hour before the blast.
"Our democracy will be neither intimidated nor terrorized," the Public Order and Citizen Protection Ministry said in a statement after the blast.
"We ask any citizen who may know anything relative to the incident to come forward," police added in a statement.
Police said that witnesses' anonymity would be maintained.
Local media said the two guards, lightly injured by glass fragments, were discharged from hospital after treatment.
The explosion caused minor damage to shops. State broadcaster NET said police evacuated about 200 people prior to the explosion.
Athens has recently experienced a surge in violent attacks.
Last week, shots were fired at the headquarters of the main Greek ruling party New Democracy.
Earlier this month, the homes of five Greek journalists as well as the home of the brother of a government spokesman became the targets of arson attacks that caused material damage but no casualties.
In an interview ahead of Sunday's blast with newspaper Kathimerini, Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said police were not taken by surprise by the recent resurgence of violent attacks in the heavily indebted nation.
"There was no element of surprise. We have been anticipating this since November," he said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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