A bomb hidden beneath drugs in a backpack exploded outside an Athens apartment building Wednesday, seriously wounding a police officer and injuring three others. Investigators believe the device was meant for an intended recipient in a criminal feud.
The building manager found the backpack near a parked car outside the entrance on Platonos Street in the working-class Kolonos district around midday.
He opened it, saw drugs and a precision scale and called police.
An officer searching the bag found a homemade device underneath, fitted with a remote control bearing a red button.
The officer appears to have pressed the button by accident, setting off the blast, police said.
The officer lost a finger on his right hand and suffered shrapnel wounds and burns. He underwent surgery at a military hospital in Athens and is not in life-threatening condition.
A female officer, the building manager and a passerby were lightly injured.
"He was covered in blood, wounded everywhere," said a resident who rushed to help the officer. "He was a police officer and he was conscious."
The device appeared to be made from the heating element of an electric stove or kitchen scale, a battery, a button and an unidentified explosive.
Experts said the blast was relatively weak.
Counterterrorism officers went to the scene but found no indication of terrorism. Police say they are treating the case as a criminal matter, and homicide and narcotics detectives are trying to determine who planted the bag and who it was meant for.
On a prosecutor's orders, police searched a fifth-floor apartment in the building belonging to a man previously convicted on drug charges.
Greece has seen a string of bombings and shootings linked to organized crime in recent years.