Two people have been wounded in a bomb attack in a suburb of Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, damaging a block of flats and six cars.
The explosion in the early hours on Saturday morning targeted the home of the president of the Greek association of prison guards in the suburb of Sykies.
The guard, identified as Konstantinos Varsamis on the association’s website, was unharmed after about 3kg of explosives were placed near the front door of his building, where he lives on the first floor.
Two other people suffered minor injuries from shards of glass, police sources told Agence France-Presse. The blast was said to have caused a “deafening noise” heard over a radius of more than 1km.
“I woke up because of the very loud bang of the explosion,” Tzetno Kelo, who lives in an adjacent building, said. “Shattered glass from a window fell on my bed and I was covered in blood.” He was treated at a hospital before being discharged.
Sofia Hatzigeorgiou, 88, who lives alone, told the Greek media outlet DNews that she had got up and discovered her house had become a “summer house”: a huge hole had opened up in the wall between her mezzanine flat and the building where the bomb had been placed.
The windows of neighbouring buildings were also damaged in the blast. Local media reports suggest the bomb was a “fairly simple device” triggered by a standard detonator.
Police told Associated Press reporters that a witness saw a man walking in the street shortly before the explosion and they were focusing their efforts on criminal gangs rather than terror groups.
Varsamis has worked for many years at Diavata prison, west of Thessaloniki, known for housing many criminal gang members as well as convicted terrorists.
A spokesperson for the Hellenic police force confirmed that its organised crime unit was leading the preliminary investigation into the incident.
Firefighters, an ambulance and dozens of police officers, including anti-terrorism specialists, attended the scene. Footage of the incident showed crowds of people standing outside the building in the middle of the night, some in their nightwear and slippers. One woman carefully made her way across shards of glass, carrying a cat.
The Thessaloniki MP, Stratos Simopoulos, told DNews he had rushed to the scene of the explosion to support Varsamis, who is a friend of his: “He has my full support, because a few weeks ago, I too received the same cowardly attack. His was much more violent.
“Public officials, who perform their duty without compromise, may be on the frontlines of the threat from such terrorist and criminal actions. I absolutely believe that they do not flinch,” he said.
