Woman killed in Thessaloniki bomb explosion as police probe Greece bank attack plot
A woman carrying a bomb outside a bank has been killed after the explosive went off in her hands, according to police. The 38-year-old woman was killed at around 5am Saturday in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. She was reportedly carrying the bomb to place it outside a nearby bank, police said.
Several storefronts and vehicles were damaged by the explosion.The woman was known to authorities after taking part in several past robberies, according to police, who said they are investigating her possible ties to extreme leftist groups.
"It appears that she was carrying an explosive device and planned to plant it a bank's ATM," a senior police official told local media. "Something went wrong and exploded in her hands," the official added.
Greek police forensic experts searching the area, while police probed the incident.
It comes just weeks after a new extremist group claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded near the offices of Hellenic Train, Greece's main railway services operator and the planting of another near the Labour Ministry in early February.
The explosion Friday evening resulted in limited damage and no injuries. The perpetrators had forewarned of the explosion by calling two media organisations about 40 minutes before it happened.
In a lengthy posting on the website Athens.indymedia.org on Sunday, the perpetrators, who styled themselves the Revolutionary Class Struggle, explained the reasons for their action, which they said was part of an armed struggle against the state.
Revolutionary Class Struggle dedicated the bombings to 'the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance' and paid tribute to Kyriakos Xymitiris, a man who was killed last year when the explosive device he was assembling exploded in a central Athens apartment.
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