ATHENS—Two people were injured after a bomb exploded outside a church in central Athens on Thursday, fueling concerns of a resurgence of urban-guerrilla violence in Greece.
The growing number of recent attacks has sparked fears of the emergence of a new generation of terrorist groups rooted in far-left organizations that target the conservative establishment.
Thursday’s blast occurred just after 7 a.m. local time outside an Orthodox Church in the upscale neighborhood of Kolonaki, before it was due to open for service. A police officer and the church caretaker were wounded and rushed to hospital, the officials said. There was no warning call to authorities or claim of responsibility.
“The church caretaker spotted a box outside the entrance of the church, moved it and called the police,” a police official said. “It exploded a few minutes later when the police arrived; the blast was not powerful.” The two were slightly injured and were receiving treatment at local hospitals, officials said.
Earlier this month a powerful bomb exploded outside a big Greek media group, in what officials called an attack on free speech and democracy. In mid-November, a bomb was placed outside the house of senior Greek judge in central Athens. No one was wounded as there were warning calls for the attacks.
Last year, former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was wounded and hospitalized for several weeks after he opened a letter bomb while riding in his car. In March 2017 Greek politicians and European Union officials were targeted in the same manner.
Greece’s conservative New Democracy party has criticized the left-wing Syriza government for retaining close links and sympathies for the country’s radical-left scene.
“We are very concerned about the way the government handles the issues of law and order,” said Vassilis Kikilias, a New Democracy lawmaker and former minister of civil protection. “We have repeatedly warned that this vicious circle of brutal terrorist violence must stop.”
The Syriza party grew out of Greece’s anticapitalist far left, parts of which long sympathized with Marxist and anarchist urban guerrillas. Since coming to power in 2015 the Syriza government and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras have become part of the European establishment and cultivated close relations with the U.S. and the EU. Yet despite this shift, the government’s critics allege it’s too tolerant of left-leaning groups.
Terrorism plagued Greece for many years after the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1974, when the military dictatorship fell. The group called 17 November and others claimed that Greece’s democracy was a façade for the continued rule of authoritarian forces and foreign powers, including the U.S. Such terrorism died down after 17 November’s leading members were arrested in 2002.
But the country’s economic crisis since 2009, brought on by the government’s crushing debt, led to a revival of violence against government and corporate targets by militant anarchists, as well as a rise in street violence by extreme-right groups, such as the fascist movement Golden Dawn.
Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com
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