According to reports, at 05.10 an anonymous caller contacted the website zougla.gr and then at 05.15 the offices of the newspaper Efimerida Ton Syntakton, saying “between Stadiou and Panepistimiou on Amerikis street outside the Bank of Greece there is a care with 75 kilos of explosives which will go off in 45 minutes.”
The police were notified and immediately the area was sealed off by officers who located a stolen Nissan Sunny in the area which appeared to be the booby-trapped car. Police evacuated workers in area (chiefly security guards) and established a wide perimeter so there would be no casualties.
Then at 05.55 the bomb went off in a deafening explosion that was heard throughout the center of Athens, ripping the car to pieces and causing extensive damage to surrounding buildings and shops. The two guards on duty in the Bank of Greece building at the time were unharmed. According to reports following the explosion witnesses reported seeing a person running towards a waiting motorbike and being driven off by an accomplice at high speed.
Anti-Terrorism and forensics officers on the scene are currently investigating security camera footage to determine if those responsible have been picked up before or after the car was parked.
The particular building in front of which the car was parked houses offices of the Bank of Greece as well as offices of representatives of the IMF.
“The obvious goal of the culprits is to change the agenda. We will not allow the terrorists to achieve their goal,” government spokesperson Simos Kedikoglou told Skai TV.