Athens’s main Syntagma Square was rocked by a makeshift explosive device early on Monday that sprayed shattered glass and debris over a wide area, a police source said.
The Eleftherotypia daily had received an anonymous phone call about a bomb 30 minutes earlier, the source said.
The perpetrators are believed to have set fire to welding-gas canisters left by workers at a local building under construction, the police said.
The explosion, which occurred shortly after 6am local time, damaged neighbouring shops and parked cars, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, Greek private TV station Mega said.
TV footage showed shattered glass and debris surrounding a building under construction, where the explosion is thought to have taken place.
No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.
Fire engines rushed to the scene to extinguish a blaze that broke out in a nearby building.
Syntagma Square is the location of the Greek finance ministry, traditionally a focal point of demonstrations over government policy.
The blast occurred at the start of a week of heavy strike activity, in reaction to government plans to alter the contracts of public-sector workers. — AFP
