Just 100 days before the start of the Athens Olympics, three bombs exploded today outside an Athens police station raising new security concerns about the world's biggest sporting event.
But Prime Minister, Mr Costas Karamanlis, said security for the Games will not be affected by the blasts. "This is an isolated incident which does not affect whatsoever the country's preparations for the safety of the Olympics," he said.
Government spokesman Mr Thodoris Rousopoulos earlier said there was no evidence so far to link the blasts to the Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said this was "a relatively small incident" but added it was in close contact with Greek officials.
Police official
"We're fully in the loop with the Greek authorities who are keeping us informed ... Obviously it's an incident which is not connected with an Olympic venue," IOC spokeswoman Ms Giselle Davies said.
She thought some National Olympic Committees (NOCs) had discussed safety concerns in the wake of the Athens attacks, but that no formal approaches had been made by them to the IOC.
A Greek police official said initial evidence pointed to the small local anarchist and leftist groups that regularly stage minor bomb attacks around Athens.
But he added: "You have three sophisticated time bombs going off outside a police station, that's serious enough for police."
The pre-dawn blasts, preceded by an anonymous telephone warning, badly damaged the station in the Kalithea district and slightly injured a policeman. Kalithea is near the hotels to be used by Olympic officials during the August 13-29 Olympics.
Security forces have been on high alert amid fears that the Games, the first summer Olympics since the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States, could be targeted by guerrillas.
Greece has drawn up a record €650 million euro security plan involving more than 50,000 security staff for the Olympics and has asked NATO for help with air and sea patrols as well as protection against weapons of mass destruction.
Greek authorities in 2002 dismantled their biggest domestic security threat, radical leftist guerrilla group November 17th.
But bomb squads have been called out several times since to defuse home-made devices planted by fringe groups, sometimes in protest against the Olympics. Nobody has taken responsibility for Wednesday's bombings so far.