Assailants on a motorcycle threw a grenade at the French embassy in Athens Thursday, slighting wounding a police officer on duty, police said. Greece's anti-terrorism police are investigating the attack, which happened at around 5am (0300GMT) on one of the city's main avenues and opposite parliament. They recovered a pin suggesting a shrapnel-firing defensive grenade, a police source said.
Police are working on the theory that the attack was staged by local anarchists, who regularly carry out acts of violence against diplomatic missions. Investigators have also not ruled out a link to the rise of the extreme right in France, following the congratulatory message by National Front leader Marine Le Pen to Donald Trump on his US election victory.
French ambassador Christophe Chantepy said his staff were in close contact with Greek police and called on French nationals to remain calmly vigilant. Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos condemned the attack, insisting that "friendly relations between Greece and France cannot be influenced in the least by such terrorist acts." The grenade left a tennis ball-sized hole in the pavement, and shrapnel marks on the embassy gate and guard box.
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