Rome, Italy - Suspect package disabled at Greek embassy

reuters

27 Dec. 2010 - Police said the bomb at the Greek embassy resembled those which exploded in Rome last week, wounding an employee at the Chilean embassy and also a Swiss embassy staff member.

"The package was similar to the ones at the other embassies," Maurizio Mezzavilla, an official of the carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police, told reporters outside the embassy, and said that anarchist involvement "could not be ruled out."

Police were called to the Venezuelan, Danish, Monaco, Kuwaiti and Albanian embassies and the Finnish embassy to the Vatican but found only harmless parcels.

But the discovery at the Greek mission highlighted a real threat.

"A suspect package arrived. We immediately informed the carabinieri who arrived immediately and neutralized the bomb," Michael Campanis, the Greek ambassador to Italy told reporters.

He said the package, addressed by hand, arrived in the embassy on December 24.

"We had not received any threats previously. The packet arrived on Friday afternoon when the embassy was already closed. The staff member found it this morning but security measures had already been stepped up," he said.

Last week, an Italian anarchist group called the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) claimed responsibility in a note for the parcel bombs at the Swiss and Chilean embassies.