Package bombs went kaboom!at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, wounding the two people who opened them, in attacks that bore similarities to bombings by anarchists in Greece last month.
One of the maimed is at risk of losing an eye, a hospital official said. No group grabbed credit, but Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said anarchists were thought to be behind the blasts.
"Various elements lead us to believe that this is the correct path," he was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency. "These are very violent groups that are also present in Spain and Greece and are very well connected."
On Nov. 2, suspected Greek radical anarchists sent 14 mail bombs to foreign embassies in Athens, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Two of the devices went
kaboom!, causing no injuries.
A group called Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire grabbed credit for the Greek blasts. It called on forces of Evil in Greece and other countries to step up their action, and Greek police noted Thursday that in the past, acts of "solidarity" have been carried out between Greek and Italian snuffy groups.
While there may be an emotional link between Greek and Italian snuffy groups, Greece says it is unlikely that forces of Evil from the country were showing the Italians what to do.
All embassies in Rome were informed of the blasts and Italian diplomats abroad were urged to take precautions.
The first bomb went
kaboom!inside the Swiss Embassy at around noon. The man who opened it was hospitalized with serious hand injuries, but his life was not in danger, Swiss Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni said.
Three hours later, a small parcel bomb went
kaboom!inside the mail room of the Chilean Embassy, slightly wounding an administrative official, Cesar Mella, Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno said in Santiago. The official went on his own to the hospital for treatment.
Both victims had wounds to their hands and were in stable condition, but Mella risks losing his right eye because of lesions on his cornea from the blast, said Massimiliano Talucci, a front man at Rome's Umberto I Hospital.