One person died and four others were injured on Wednesday in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, in homemade bomb attacks against the homes of three executives of the right-wing New Democracy (ND) party in power, police told AFP.
The attacks took place at dawn against the homes of the chairman of the ND executive committee, Zisis Ioakimovic, former MP Savvas Anastasiades and a former party candidate Afroditi Nestora, the Kathimerini news website said.
AFP
During the latest attack, five people were injured, including Afroditi Nestora and her parents who were taken to hospital, while four vehicles in the building’s garage burned, according to police.
Afroditi Nestora’s mother died on Wednesday evening, announced the Hippocrates hospital in Thessaloniki where she had been admitted in “serious condition” in the morning.
AFP
“Indiscriminate violence”
This tragic end “confirms the murderous and inhumane nature of the blind violence that occurs in public life,” denounced Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a press release.
“No one can remain passive or limit themselves to hypocritical condemnations” added the head of the conservative government, calling to “dispel the darkness of a minority”.
The police claim to be collecting video recordings in order to locate and arrest the perpetrators of these acts.
The investigation was entrusted to the anti-terrorist police.
The incendiary devices consisted of gas canisters and the attacks appear to have been committed by the same individuals.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is also the president of New Democracy, expressed his “indignation” and his “anger at the cowardly, terrorist and murderous attack”.
He said he would go with the Ministers of Health and Citizen Protection on Wednesday evening to Thessaloniki to support his party officials and learn about the state of health of the injured.
“But also to send a perfectly clear and explicit message: zero tolerance towards any new form of terrorism that could appear in our country,” he stressed.
“Absolutely condemnable”
Shortly before, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis explained on private radio Skai that the attacks were carried out at dawn in the space of about 15 minutes.
This is clearly not a “coincidence,” he noted.
“When we throw cans of gasoline at cars and houses (…), we accept the possibility that people will die,” Mr. Marinakis was indignant.
Left-wing opposition parties also condemned the attacks.
“Any form of political violence is absolutely condemnable,” the left-wing Syriza party wrote in a statement.
Attacks with incendiary devices by small extremist groups against political figures, banks or companies are frequent in Greece, causing damage but rarely causing casualties.
