GERMAN POLICE have secured an explosive package addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel that was delivered to her Berlin office complex yesterday afternoon.
The suspicious package was reportedly the size of a briefcase with the Greek economic ministry listed as sender. It was delivered by courier at 1pm and picked out during a routine scan by staff in the chancellery mailroom, an annex near the main building in central Berlin. One unconfirmed report described the device as a “pipe bomb disguised in the covers of a book”.
“Investigations show that the contents were capable of injuring a person,” said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Dr Merkel, who was in Bruges at the time. The chancellery was not evacuated and traffic continued to flow normally around the complex, opposite the Reichstag.
Investigators said the material inside the package, reportedly a black powder, would have ignited on opening. A special police unit, after examining the package with a special robot probe, made the package safe onsite with a water cannon. “I suspect the motive of the sender was to create insecurity among the population and the security services,” said terrorism expert Rolf Tophoven on German television. “But I think the government is still correct in saying that Germany is not the target of any concrete terrorism plans.
The Berlin incident follows the discovery in Britain and Dubai of parcels posted from Yemen containing explosives addressed to Jewish institutions in Chicago.
The package discovered in Britain was routed through Cologne airport, prompting German authorities to place a blanket ban on flights from the Arabian peninsula nation.
Hours before the Berlin find, small explosive devices detonated, or were intercepted at several embassies in Athens.
After explosions at the Swiss and Russian embassies, bomb squad units detonated devices destined for the Bulgarian, Chilean and German consulates. Two mail bombs were sent to Greece’s 300-seat parliament building in Syntagma Square. In each case the bombs were delivered by courier, according to police. No injuries were reported.
Two other suspect packages detonated by police at the cargo terminal of Athens airport contained explosives and were addressed to Europol and the European Court of Justice, police said.
The attacks in Greece, attributed to homegrown terror groups rather than al-Qaeda, came in the wake of a similar campaign against the Belgian, Dutch and Mexican embassies on Monday, when two Greek men were arrested. One of Monday’s booby-traps was addressed to French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Authorities hope that the men, aged 25 and 22, will help to throw light on the radical anti-establishment groups believed to be behind a wave of terrorist attacks since Greece was rocked by riots following the police shooting of a teenager in Athens two years ago.
At least one of the detainees, a chemistry student who was seized wearing a wig and bulletproof vest, is believed to be linked to a radical group called the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.
The group is thought to be linked to the Sect of Revolutionaries urban guerrillas who have killed police officers and a prominent journalist, and vowed to turn Greece into a “war zone”.
– (Additional reporting Guardian service/Reuters)