Arson damages Athens building housing Greek media outlets

ATHENS, Greece — An arson attack on a suburban Athens creating that properties the workplaces of a Greek radio station and newspaper prompted major hurt early Wednesday and drew condemnation from political leaders in Greece and in other places in the European Union.

Explosions have been listened to right before a fireplace broke out shortly after 3 a.m. at the constructing which properties radio station Real FM and the Real Information newspaper in Maroussi, a northern Athens suburb.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze. Fireplace Provider investigators found the remnants of 3 fuel canisters tied with each other on an exterior stairwell amongst the ground and very first floors, as well as a can containing a flammable liquid.

No 1 was hurt, while a radio station sound engineer was evacuated and dealt with for smoke inhalation. The places of work of a shipping and delivery firm on the building’s top floor suffered the most damage. The newspaper in found on the to start with floor and the radio station on the next.

Actual Team operator Nikos Chatzinikolaou, a veteran journalist, posted a small clip from his auto that showed the top rated of the making on hearth and tweeted: “Explosions and fire at Real FM and Realnews! They are burning us! They are trying to shut us down!”

Chatzinikolaou launched the media corporation in 2007. The team also consists of news web site enikos.gr.

Real Team noted on its web site that security cameras confirmed two folks with their heads lined positioning the canisters and can.

Police reported they suspect other folks may possibly have aided the arsonists escape. , are inspecting safety cameras from close by buildings.

The group’s news web page stated a critical malfunction in the radio station’s broadcast tower on Tuesday could be related to the fireplace.

No a person experienced claimed duty as of Wednesday afternoon.

Greece has seen very similar assaults on media outlets and other targets that most often turned out to be the do the job of considerably-left groups, but Tuesday’s fire triggered extra significant problems.

“The liberty of the press is neither constrained nor muzzled by terrorist functions,” Greek Key Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said through a Parliament session.

Opposition chief Alexis Tsipras, various federal government ministers and politicians from all of the international locations political events made on the web and dwell statements strongly denouncing the attack.

European Fee Vice President for Values and Transparency Vera Jourov joined the condemnation and reported Greek authorities will have to do “much additional…to assurance the safety of journalists and media, due to the fact this this assault is really stunning.”

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Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.