The police said she was married to a Greek Australian called Aristeidh but had shortened her name to Arris and had lived in Greece for at least a decade. "But at the moment we don't know why it went off or what the target was going to be." They were exploring the possibility that the bomb was to be planted by her in retaliation for previous attacks.Ī police source said: "It looks like she was carrying it somewhere when it went off. Instead, they were focusing on organised crime and were exploring possible links between the dead woman and underworld figures suspected of running protection rackets in cabaret nightclubs in Athens. The Pope is due in Athens tomorrow and there have been protests over his visit by Greek Orthodox extremists, but police said they believed the bomb had nothing to do with terrorism. They said the animal survived the explosion, which happened in the early hours of this morning, and was taken away by veterinary specialists, but was thought to have died later. Her rottweiler was in the car with her, but Greek police refused to say whether the dog could have set off the bomb by standing on or biting the remote control device. Investigators were looking at the possibility that she stopped to check or move the bomb and triggered it accidentally. She was found in the driver's seat of the car with the door open in a deserted street. The dead woman, who was thought to run a nightclub in the city, was wearing black gloves and had cotton wool plugged in her ears. The bomb had been placed near the handbrake and a remote control device was found in a small black bag in the car, Greek police said. The woman, named locally as London-born Susan-Mary Arris, 48, was found dead in a white BMW with British registration plates in the southern Athens suburb of Voula. Small anarchist groups have intensified arson attacks on symbols of wealth and state power.A British woman died today in Athens in an explosion believed to have been caused when a bomb she was carrying in her car went off by mistake. In July terrorists targeted a McDonald's restaurant in central Athens, causing extensive damage. In the bloodiest incident, gunmen shot dead an anti-terrorist officer guarding a witness in Athens on 17 June. Militants have stepped up attacks after the fatal police shooting of an Athens teenager in December prompted the country's worst rioting in decades. Police said the second bomb was hidden in a telephone exchange box outside the ministry for Macedonia and Thrace and exploded at 4.56am Greek time, breaking windows in the building. A woman was slightly injured by flying glass. It went off in a side street at 5.38am Greek time. The stock exchange blast in the central Votanikos district blew out windows at the building and a nearby car showroom, damaging parked cars and trees, police said. "The methodology points to Revolutionary Struggle," said Panayiotis Stathis, a police spokesman. In 2007 it fired a rocket at the US embassy in Athens. Police said a far-left militant group called Revolutionary Struggle was suspected. Both attacks were preceded by anonymous warning calls to Greek media but there was no claim of responsibility.
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