Woman Killed in Bomb Blast Near Bank in Thessaloniki, Greece
According to the Greek police, an explosion happened today in the early morning hours in Thessaloniki. A bomb that was in the possession of a 39-year old woman went off inside her hands while she was standing near a local bank branch, allegedly attempting to place it.
Bystanders immediately called emergency services.
Following the explosion, the woman was taken away by an ambulance and had to be amputated. She was given CPR, intubated immediately, and taken to the hospital, where she died a few minutes later.
Police do not know “where exactly the device would have been placed,” or what the purpose if the bomb was, said the spokesperson for the Hellenic Police, Constantia Demoglidou to a TV reporter.
We are looking for evidence of where exactly the device would have been placed, since we do not know if she really wanted to place the device in a specific spot.
Constantia Demoglidou, the spokesperson for the Hellenic Police.
The most likely scenario that the police are currently investigating is the attempted theft of an amount of money from the bank branch, by using a bomb to break into the bank.
The 38-year-old woman is known to the authorities. She has been involved in various criminal offenses in the past, mainly robberies. She had also been involved with the authorities for cases of prostitution, drugs, usury and violations of weapons laws.
Among other things, she had been arrested and served a prison sentence in 2021 for the illegal possession of a Kalashnikov rifle and large amounts of drugs. The police are currently trying to ascertain the woman's motives.
A CCTV feed captured the moment the explosion happened:
Following the incident, the Greek police raided the apartment where the 38-year-old woman was living, and according to an initial assessment, the Police found another highly-explosive device, eight detonators, as well as a small amount of TNT were found in the apartment. In total, the authorities estimated that there was one kilogram of explosives.
Later it was revealed that the woman had already placed the explosive device near the bank, lit the fuse and walked away. However, when she did not hear an explosion, she turned back to check the bomb. The moment she returned, the device exploded.
Authorities are also investigating whether the woman might have had ties to 'extreme leftist' groups. Many of the explosions that happened in Greece over the past few years have been tied to political motives.
Earlier this year, a group calling itself 'Revolutionary Class Struggle' claimed responsibility for a bombing in central Athens near the main office of 'Hellenic Train', Greece’s main railway services operator, and the planting of another bomb near the Labor Ministry.