Bomb explodes outside Athens court building

A blast outside a court in central Athens sent smoke billowing over the city early on Thursday after a warning phone call had given police time to evacuate the area.

AFP - A bomb exploded outside a court in Athens on Thursday, causing damage to the building after a warning phone call had enabled police to evacuate the area, a police source said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries as television footage showed smoke billowing in front of the Athens court complex near the city centre. Several of the building's windows were smashed.

Early information indicated that the device had been placed on a motorbike, the police source said.

"It was a rather strong explosion," a local kiosk owner told Alter television, which received the warning phone call some 40 minutes before the blast and notified police.

"I am 100 metres (yards) away and all my wares have fallen off the shelves," he said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, which comes some two weeks before the scheduled trial of more than a dozen suspected members of a radical anarchist group.

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