Woman dies when a bomb she is carrying explodes in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police say

New Indian Express

03-05-2025

THESSALONIKI, Greece: A woman was killed early Saturday in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki when a bomb she was carrying exploded in her hands, police said.
The 38-year-old woman apparently was carrying the bomb to place outside a nearby bank around 5 a.m., police said.
Several storefronts and vehicles were damaged by the explosion.
Police said the woman, whom they did not publicly identify, had a criminal record related to drugs and prostitution and had been involved in at least one robbery and thefts in the past. The Greek police's division for organized crime was investigating the incident, while authorities were also investigating whether the woman might have had ties to extreme leftist groups.
Greece has seen occasional bombings, as well as targeted killings, attributed to various organized crime groups. The country also has a long history of politically motivated violence dating back to the 1970s, with domestic extremist groups carrying out small-scale bombings that usually cause some damage but rarely lead to injuries.
While the groups most active in the 1980s and 1990s, whose preferred targets tended to be politicians, foreign businesses and diplomats, have been dismantled, new small groups have emerged.
Last year, a man believed to have been trying to assemble a bomb was killed when the device he was making exploded in a central Athens apartment. A woman inside the apartment was severely injured. It was unclear what their intended target might have been.
The blast had prompted Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis to warn of an emerging new generation of domestic extremists.