At least five people have been injured in a series of coordinated firebomb attacks on the homes of politicians from Greece’s governing New Democracy party in Thessaloniki, northern Greece.
The pre-dawn strikes early on July 1 used crude devices made with camping gas canisters, police said. All the injuries came from the last of three near-simultaneous attacks, in which cars and motorcycles were set alight.
The targets were Zisis Ioakeimovits, president of New Democracy’s regional committee in the city, former member of parliament Savvas Anastasiadis and party candidate Afroditi Nestora.
The most serious attack hit the Charilaou district at about 4.35am, where a fire thought to have been started by a gas canister spread to two cars and two motorcycles. One of the vehicles belonged to Nestora.
She suffered burns to her hands after reportedly trying to put out the blaze. Her 70-year-old mother sustained severe burns and remains intubated in intensive care at Hippokrateio Hospital.
Three other residents were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation, among them Nestora’s father. The earlier attacks, in the Pylaia and Toumba districts, caused damage but no injuries.
Greece’s counter-terrorism unit has taken over the case and is examining whether the three incidents, all within less than 20 minutes, were coordinated. Early inquiries suggested the attackers had reached the sites on motorcycles.
Anastasiadis, who said he had been away from Thessaloniki, described surveillance footage that appeared to show a figure emerging from nearby woodland to place a device beside his apartment building.
Ioakeimovits said he had heard what sounded like an explosion and stepped onto his balcony to find a burning gas canister, with damage confined to the ground floor of his building. His wife and adult daughter were briefly alarmed but unhurt.
New Democracy’s political committee secretary Konstantinos Kyranakis called the assaults a terrorist act intended to kill and said the party would not be intimidated. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis described the incidents as murderous attacks and said police had launched a manhunt.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis telephoned Ioakeimovits after the attacks, according to Greek media. Assaults by militant groups on politicians, police and other authority figures are relatively frequent in Greece though they seldom cause injuries.
