Greek police detonate bomb outside ministry

© AFP/File LOUISA GOULIAMAKI

ATHENS — Greek police on Monday detonated a bomb outside the labour ministry in Athens following a warning phone call, a police source said.

Bomb specialists blew up a backpack found outside the ministry building entrance in central Athens. Nobody was hurt.

"It was a time bomb," a police source told AFP, adding the device was "faulty" as it had failed to explode at the time set.

Efimerida ton Syntakton daily said it had received an anonymous phone call about the bomb at 11.20 p.m. GMT. Police cordoned off the area but the device did not go off as threatened 40 minutes later.

As a precaution, the police then carried out three controlled explosions on the backpack at 0230 GMT, the source said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the method suggests a domestic far-left group.

The incident came as lawmakers on Saturday approved a new budget containing additional tax hikes and pension cuts demanded by the country's international creditors.

The leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been criticised for compromising with the creditors, after coming to power in 2015 promising to eliminate austerity.