Police are continuing to sift through the evidence following the suspected terrorist attack at the Athens Appeals Court in the early hours of Friday morning and the powerful bomb blast that caused extensive damage to the court and to surrounding buildings.
They are awaiting the ballistics report on a single 7.62x39mm round fired by the suspected terrorists at a police guard from a Kalashnikov rifle, in order to determine whether it has been used in other terrorist or criminal acts. According to earlier reports, counter-terrorism investigators suspect that the left-wing terror organisation Popular Fighters' Group is behind the attack.
Police have also tracked down the mini-van used as a getaway vehicle and later found torched on Kountouriotou Street in Exarchia. The car was actually stolen from the Syntagma area in 2015, police said, where it had been temporarily parked by an owner residing in another area. The licence plates, however, were those of a similar vehicle legally registered in one of Athens' southern suburbs, police said.
The bomb was left outside the Athens Appeals Court entrance and exploded at 3:25 on Friday morning. The blast was preceded by two warning calls to the newspaper "Efimerida ton Syntakton" and the website "Zougla" at 2:50, giving authorities a 40-minute deadline until the bomb went off. The caller insistently demanded that the building be evacuated but did not name any organisation as being responsible for the attack.
The area was cordoned off and the bomb exploded at 3:25, causing serious damage to the Appeals Court entrance and to the windows of buildings opposite the court.
According to the eye-witness account of a police guard at the appeals court, who saw the perpetrators leaving the bag containing the bomb, there were three people involved. Two carried the bomb up the steps of the building to the entrance, while a third was waiting in a mini-van that they used to get away.
When the guard attempted to follow them, the individual waiting with the car fired one shot to stop him giving pursuit but did not hit him.
A burnt-out Fiat mini-van believed to be the getaway vehicle was found in Athens' Exarchia district later on Friday morning.
The two warning calls were made immediately after the bombers made their getaway.
The court's activities were suspended in the wake of the attack and, according to an announcement by the Athens bar association, it will remain closed until January 5.