ATHENS // A parcel bomb ripped through the Greek ministry for police and public safety, killing the minister's personal security chief in what the government slammed as a "terrorist attack". The explosion, which police described as "very strong," occurred metres away from the office of the minister, Michalis Chryssohoidis, who was unharmed despite being in the building at the time. The blast, which happened on Thursday, killed the head of his personal security detachment, Georges Vassilakis, 52. Police said that neighbouring offices on the sixth floor, where the bomb went off, were seriously damaged by the blast.
Prime minister George Papandreou slammed the bombing as a "terrorist attack". "While our country and people battle daily to get out of crisis, cowardly killers want to hurt our democracy (and) Greek society," Mr Papandreou said in a statement. "They will get the response that they deserve not only from the state but also from all of society. The terrorists will not reach their objective," he added.
The bombing marks the first time in Greece that an attack has targeted the heart of the country's security apparatus, and was carried out despite the heavy police presence at the ministry's entrance. "We are not afraid, we will continue to fight," Mr Chryssohoidis told journalists at the ministry's entrance after the bombing. "Personally, I have lost a precious and dear colleague," he added, clearly in shock.
Greek media were rife with speculation about how the parcel could have made it through normally draconian security measures at the ministry. The building on the Athens outskirts was evacuated after the blast. The anti-terrorist brigade will carry out an inquiry into the incident. Two of Mr Chryssohoidis's predecessors survived bombings, most recently an attack in May 2006 on the car of his conservative predecessor, who escaped unscathed.
The Revolutionary Struggle group claimed responsibility for the car attack. Police arrested six members of the gang, including its alleged ringleader, last April. They also seized a stash of weapons. The parcel bombing, which comes amid soaring social tensions over Greece's unprecedented austerity drive, targeted a symbolic figure in the country's struggle against terror. In an earlier stint in the same job, Mr Chryssohoidis was in charge in 2002 when police broke up the November 17 group, who were responsible for a series of some 20 killings since 1975.
More recently he was credited with successful operations against the far-left Revolutionary Struggle. The group, which is on EU and US terrorist lists, has claimed responsibility for 15 attacks since 2003. However, other extremist groups also operate in the country and have targeted the police since the December 2008 killing of a youth in Athens by a police officer. The boy's death triggered weeks of urban violence.
* AFP
