Bomb Explodes Outside Home of Prominent Greek Ship Owner, Nikos Tsakos

Nikolas Tsakos (middle with hand up) rings the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of the Tsakos Energy Navigation’s 20th anniversary as a public company, March 22, 2013. Image: TEN, Ltd.

ATHENS, March 27 (Reuters) – A makeshift bomb exploded outside the home of a prominent Greek ship owner in central Athens on Wednesday, shattering windows and causing other damage but no injuries, police officials said.

A newspaper received a warning call about half an hour before the explosion at the house near the Acropolis of 50-year-old Nikos Tsakos, the chairman of tanker operator Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd, police officials said.

“Parts of the device were found at the entrance of the building, the bomb was probably in a bag,” a police official said. “Some neighbouring buildings were also damaged.”

Nikos Tsakos was until January a board member of the Bank of Cyprus, the biggest lender on the Mediterranean island stricken by its worst financial crisis in decades.

Minor bomb and arson attacks have increased in recent months as Greece implements deeply unpopular austerity measures in exchange for bailout funds from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for its debt-crippled economy.

In January, two Greek anarchist groups claimed responsibility for an explosion at an Athens shopping centre that fuelled fears of rising political violence.

That incident followed a series of small homemade bomb attacks on journalists and political figures.

(c) 2013 Thomson Reuters, Click For Restrictions

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