An explosive device wounded a police officer when it went off outside a church in central Athens in Greece early on Thursday, state TV ERT said.
The blast occurred outside the Saint Dionysios church in the Kolonaki district in central Athens around 7 am local time (0500 GMT). The police officer was taken to hospital and police cordoned off the area.
“The police officer spotted a box outside the entrance of the church and thought it was strange. The blast was not powerful, the officer was injured in the face and hands,” a police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
There was no warning call that the device would go off, the official said. Police were checking footage from cameras in the area.
Small-scale attacks on businesses, state buildings, police and politicians are not uncommon in Greece, which has a long history of political violence, says a Reuters report.
A powerful blast smashed windows and wrecked offices at Greece’s SKAI TV in Athens earlier this month in what officials called an attack on democracy. No one was hurt.
