: Letter bomb explodes at Italian police station

Monday July 16 8:10 AM ET

Tension Rises in G8 City After Bomb Blast

By Emilio Parodi

GENOA, Italy (Reuters) - A parcel bomb exploded in Genoa on Monday, puncturing a huge security operation set up to prepare the city for the arrival of some of the world's most powerful
leaders for the Group of Eight (G8) summit this week.

The blast slightly injured the hands and face of an officer who opened a package at about 10:30 a.m. at a station in the Fruttuoso area in the city, a police spokesman said.

``The package-bomb was handed to the police station by a messenger. The parcel was taken into an office where a policeman opened it and it exploded,'' he said.

The young police officer was treated in hospital for minor burns but was not in a serious condition.

The police station was situated in a residential building and police evacuated residents and cordoned off streets nearby amid speculation a search was on for another device.

``Whoever sent this parcel is not a protester but a provocateur,'' an 81-year-old woman, living near the site of the parcel bomb blast, told Reuters. ``They should take more severe measures.''

Police later said they were questioning several people but gave no further details. No group has so far claimed responsibility for sending the parcel bomb.

Minutes after the explosion, bomb disposal experts were called out to inspect a suspect vehicle parked illegally outside the police regional headquarters in another part of the city. A Carabinieri spokesman said later the doors were blown open but no device was found.

RISING TENSION

The security scare was bound to heighten tension after weeks of preparations to ensure the safety of leaders from the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, who arrive in Genoa on Friday for the G8 annual summit.

Besides such attacks, authorities are also preparing to deal with an expected 120,000 anti-globalization demonstrators from hundreds of protest groups, including environmentalists,
debt cancellation campaigners and human rights activists.

Security forces were expecting some of the activists to try to ignite the sort of violence seen at other major economic and international summits in the past two years.

Italy's new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is hosting the summit, has ordered around 15,000 police and soldiers to guard the city for the gathering from Friday to Sunday.

The Italian secret services, assisted by their counterparts from some of the G8 countries, have also based themselves in the northwest city as part of arrangements to guard against any terrorist attack.

The Italian Defense Ministry said last week surface-to-air missiles were positioned near Genoa airport. Fighter jets were to monitor the skies above Genoa and naval boats would patrol accesses to the port.

Frogmen were constantly inspecting the old harbor where the luxury cruise liner European Vision has moored to provide accommodation for all the G8 leaders, except President Bush, who is making his G8 debut in Genoa.

Security concerns, fueled by possible street clashes, have dictated that Bush sleep elsewhere, possibly at the U.S. Camp Darby military base in Livorno, a short helicopter ride south. The Genoa Social Forum, the umbrella organization comprising around 800 protest groups, condemned the explosion and said it would not scare protesters away from Genoa.

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