A group of three or four assailants dressed up to appear like doctors immobilised a security guard and blasted open an ATM at the Sismanoglio Hospital in the northern Athens suburb of Vrilissia.
According to reports, the cash dispenser was blown open using gas and the explosion was significant, causing widespread damage to the hospital’s entrance area but no injuries, as there were few people about at the time.
The incident took place at around 4.30 a.m., roughly half an hour after another ATM was blown up using a similar method in the nearby suburb of Maroussi. Police are investigating a possible connection between the two events.
Investigators are also looking into a pre-dawn attack on a tax office in the northern Athens suburb of Maroussi.
Police are not ruling out domestic terrorism as a motive, Kathimerini reported.
The cause for alarm stems from the fact that there had been no warning call made to the police ahead of the attack, which involved an explosive device being detonated outside the building on Plataion Street.
The blast was powerful enough to break several windows on the building’s façade and to damage the outer courtyard wall. It did not cause any injuries, mainly thanks to the fact that no one was in the building or walking past it at the time.
The investigation has been handed over to the police’s counterterrorism unit, which is looking at security camera footage from the broader vicinity in the hopes of identifying the assailants or gleaning more clues concerning their activities.
At the same time, a team of robbers stole jewellery worth 100,000 euros from the safe of a store in the northern city of Thessaloniki earlier in the week.
The police is using footage from a CCTV camera of a nearby business the to identify the suspects and track their moves.
