Athens police hit by bomb blast

ATHENS - A powerful bomb explosion yesterday morning killed a senior police officer and wounded 11 other people, 10 of them policemen. The blast came as a police bus was passing through the north-west Perissos quarter of the city. Athanasios Velos, a police chief, died of his injuries on the way to hospital. Investigators said the bomb had been placed next to a bus-stop near a former security building.

The November 17 extremist group, which has been blamed for many bomb attacks in Greece over the past 20 years, claimed responsibility. None of the group's members has ever been arrested. AFP