Greek counter-terrorism police arrested three people on Friday in connection with a series of firebombings targeting individuals linked to the governing New Democracy party. The attacks, which took place on July 1 in the northern city of Thessaloniki, involved homemade gas canister explosives left outside three buildings, including apartments housing party figures and a property owned by a local politician.
The attacks resulted in the death of a 72-year-old mother of a parliamentary candidate, who died of burns at a hospital. While the first two blasts caused only material damage, the third attack wounded five people. Authorities have linked the suspects arrested on Friday to this third, fatal attack. Greece has a decades-long history of bomb and arson attacks on politicians, though recent incidents have typically only caused material damage.
In a separate development, Greek police arrested two people and issued a warrant for a third over a 2010 arson attack that killed three workers. The incident occurred on May 5, 2010, during a massive general strike against budget cuts at the beginning of the country's debt crisis. Masked youths clashed with riot police in the city center as tens of thousands marched against the terms of Greece's first bailout from euro zone countries and the International Monetary Fund.
The 2010 tragedy unfolded when assailants threw petrol bombs at a Marfin bank branch, trapping one man and two women inside. One of the women was pregnant, and all three died after choking on smoke. Police officials stated that the recent arrests were made after officers compared evidence and photographs from that day and other protests.