Europe on alert following Rome embassy attacks
Source: Agencies |
December 24, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ITALIAN police said yesterday they were checking all embassies in Rome after two people were injured in separate explosions at the Swiss and Chilean missions in what Rome's mayor called a "wave of terrorism."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"It's a wave of terrorism against the embassies," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told reporters.
The two victims were both working in the mailrooms of their embassies when the packages blew up in their hands. One victim risks losing an eye, authorities said.
"We're working with bomb disposal experts to ensure that no packages can be opened by inexperienced people," Rome's chief of police Francesco Tagliente said.
"We still need to understand the nature of these episodes, all the embassies have been alerted."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini condemned the incidents, which he said were a serious threat to diplomatic missions in Rome but he urged caution and warned against alarmist reactions.
Bomb disposal experts searched the Swiss embassy offices, located in a prosperous part of Rome that houses many foreign embassies, but staff remained in the building following the incident, which occurred at around midday.
Firefighters conducted checks of the Chilean embassy but left in the late afternoon, while inspections were carried out at foreign missions across the Italian capital.
"We are reviewing our security posture in Rome in light of incidents today," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.
Police said the injured Swiss embassy employee had been taken to hospital in central Rome suffering serious wounds to his hands after he opened a package in the mailroom.
"The man is an employee of the embassy, he was injured while he was opening a package received in the mailroom which blew up in his hands," Maurizio Mezzavilla, a spokesman for the Carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police, told reporters.
The explosion at the Chilean embassy occurred in the early afternoon, hours after the earlier incident, and also hit the person opening the mail, injuring him in the face and hands but less seriously than the Swiss victim.
"We don't know who or which group sent this letter, and I don't see a connection between the countries' embassies," Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Monero told reporters in capital Santiago.
A suspect package was found at the Ukrainian mission as well but the embassy later said no dangerous items had been found after an inspection.
The explosions follow the discovery of a rudimentary device in an empty underground train in Rome on Tuesday.
However, police said that it lacked a detonator and tests showed it contained no explosive.
Yesterday's explosions occurred at a time of heightened security fears in Europe following a botched attack by a suspected suicide bomber in Sweden this month.
The suspected bomber was killed in Stockholm on December 11. Police believe he was planning to attack a train station or department store at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
An anti-government demonstration by Italian students last week descended into some of the worst street violence seen in Rome for many years.
The incidents bore similarities to an episode in Greece last month in which far-left militants sent parcel bombs to foreign governments and embassies in Athens.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"It's a wave of terrorism against the embassies," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told reporters.
The two victims were both working in the mailrooms of their embassies when the packages blew up in their hands. One victim risks losing an eye, authorities said.
"We're working with bomb disposal experts to ensure that no packages can be opened by inexperienced people," Rome's chief of police Francesco Tagliente said.
"We still need to understand the nature of these episodes, all the embassies have been alerted."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini condemned the incidents, which he said were a serious threat to diplomatic missions in Rome but he urged caution and warned against alarmist reactions.
Bomb disposal experts searched the Swiss embassy offices, located in a prosperous part of Rome that houses many foreign embassies, but staff remained in the building following the incident, which occurred at around midday.
Firefighters conducted checks of the Chilean embassy but left in the late afternoon, while inspections were carried out at foreign missions across the Italian capital.
"We are reviewing our security posture in Rome in light of incidents today," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.
Police said the injured Swiss embassy employee had been taken to hospital in central Rome suffering serious wounds to his hands after he opened a package in the mailroom.
"The man is an employee of the embassy, he was injured while he was opening a package received in the mailroom which blew up in his hands," Maurizio Mezzavilla, a spokesman for the Carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police, told reporters.
The explosion at the Chilean embassy occurred in the early afternoon, hours after the earlier incident, and also hit the person opening the mail, injuring him in the face and hands but less seriously than the Swiss victim.
"We don't know who or which group sent this letter, and I don't see a connection between the countries' embassies," Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Monero told reporters in capital Santiago.
A suspect package was found at the Ukrainian mission as well but the embassy later said no dangerous items had been found after an inspection.
The explosions follow the discovery of a rudimentary device in an empty underground train in Rome on Tuesday.
However, police said that it lacked a detonator and tests showed it contained no explosive.
Yesterday's explosions occurred at a time of heightened security fears in Europe following a botched attack by a suspected suicide bomber in Sweden this month.
The suspected bomber was killed in Stockholm on December 11. Police believe he was planning to attack a train station or department store at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
An anti-government demonstration by Italian students last week descended into some of the worst street violence seen in Rome for many years.
The incidents bore similarities to an episode in Greece last month in which far-left militants sent parcel bombs to foreign governments and embassies in Athens.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
