More parcel bombs may have been sent abroad from Greece, police said on Wednesday as authorities suspended overseas shipments of mail and packages for 48 hours following a wave of attacks on European government targets.
Small bombs exploded at the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens on Tuesday, a package with explosives was intercepted at the German chancellor's office and another package addressed to the Italian prime minister caught fire when it was checked by authorities, an Italian police source said.
Two suspect packages detonated by police at the cargo terminal of Athens airport on Tuesday evening contained explosives and were addressed to European police organization Europol and the European Court of Justice, police officials said.
"If there are more parcel bombs they must be abroad by now, not in Greece. Courier services have made checks and have not found anything suspect for domestic delivery," a police official, who did not want to be named, said on Wednesday.
"Whatever was sent to embassies here must have been received already, it takes one day for deliveries," the official said.
Another official said police were still investigating and were not aware of any other suspicious packages.
Police have arrested two Greeks, aged 22 and 24, in possession of two bombs including one addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The latest incidents took the total of actual or suspected bombs to 14 since Monday.
One of the two arrested men is suspected to be a member of the Fire Conspiracy Cells, who have staged several attacks on government targets over the past year, police said on Monday.
Greeks have become used to gas canister and bomb attacks against public buildings and police stations in the last two years, as well as anti-capitalist urban guerrilla attacks down the decades.
The wave of bombs may be intended to galvanize an anti-government vote in Sunday's local elections.
Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialists already fear a backlash against the radical tax hikes, pension freezes and cuts in spending and public sector wages they have imposed to combat the country's debt crisis.
DOZEN ARRESTS
The attackers also may want to demonstrate that they are still active after the arrests of more than a dozen suspected members of guerrilla groups this year.
Papandreou vowed to "be merciless to those who attempt in vain to rock social peace with terrorist acts and hurt our country's image internationally during a very difficult period."
The two arrested men were both charged with participating in a terrorist group and with illegal possession of explosives and weapons, a court official said.
