Greece has suspended international air mail for 48 hours after several parcel bombs were sent on Tuesday, including one to German Chancellor¹ Angela Merkel.

本周二希腊发生多起邮件炸弹事故，其中一起涉及德国总理安吉拉·默克尔，当局下令停止48小时国际航空邮服务。

Parcel bombs have been sent to a number of embassies in Athens as well as abroad

An extreme left-wing group is suspected of being responsible.

Parcel bombs and suspicious packages were sent to embassies（大使馆） in the capital, Athens, and international organisations.

Greek police said the air mail service was being suspended to allow checks to be carried out.

A private courier plane, found to be carrying a suspect package from Athens, was re-routed to Bologna airport in Italy on Tuesday night.

The package was addressed to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Greek police said.

When it was exmained at Bologna, the package caught fire. No one was hurt, Italian officials said, and the contents were taken for analysis.

On Tuesday evening, two parcel bombs were destroyed in controlled explosions at Athens airport's cargo³ terminal. They were addressed to International police organisation² Europol in the Netherlands and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

'Co-ordinated' action

Earlier in the day, parcel bombs exploded at the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens, and several suspicious packages were destroyed.

A suspected bomb was destroyed at the Bulgarian embassy and another, posted to the Chilean embassy, in a van.

No-one was hurt in the blasts, which came a day after four parcel bombs were found in the city.

The BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens says it appears to be a co-ordinated attack by an extreme left-wing group.

The first explosion on Tuesday happened at the Swiss embassy.

First reports said the device had been thrown into a courtyard, but police later said it had been left at the embassy's entrance.

"When the external packaging was removed, the contents burst into flames," a police spokesman said.

Bomb squad⁴（防爆小组） officials were on their way to the Russian embassy when the device there exploded.

The Bulgarian embassy was sealed off as experts carried out a controlled explosion on a suspected parcel bomb.

Another suspected device addressed to the Chilean embassy was found in a delivery van outside the Greek parliament and destroyed.

The courier carrying the parcel was worried and alerted police on guard outside the building.

Officials said another suspected bomb was intercepted⁵（拦截） at the offices of a courier company addressed to the German embassy.

German officials said a parcel bomb sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel's office had come from Greece.