Two police officers and two residents were injured on Wednesday, 21 October, after an explosion in a block of flats on Platonos Street, in the Kolonos neighbourhood of Athens. The Hellenic Police said the injuries were not life-threatening. One officer was badly hurt in the eye and the hand. There is no conviction and no identified perpetrators.

eKathimerini, citing a police statement, reported that the building manager called police after finding a bag in a common area on the mezzanine and saying it appeared to contain a jar of drugs and a pair of scales. Two officers arrived. They opened the bag with the manager and another resident. The blast followed.

The Independent, citing police, wrote that all four were taken away in ambulances and that the homicide unit is leading the investigation. An unnamed police official said authorities are not treating the case, at this stage, as a terrorist act. Kathimerini also noted bomb-disposal officers at the scene.

How the device went off is not clear. eKathimerini, after initial testimony, wrote that one of the officers may have activated the detonator. The Independent cited a second police official who spoke of a possible remote trigger. Those are two lines of inquiry, not a verdict.

Police said the bag also contained illicit substances, pills and a scale. The case was taken up by organised-crime investigators and, according to Kathimerini, by the homicide unit. There was, on Wednesday, no attribution to a person or a group.

The opposition grouping ELAS called the incident a deadly trap and asked police to identify those responsible. That is a political reaction, not a finding of the inquiry.

Wednesday’s blast is an ongoing police matter. It is not a conviction, not a confirmed terrorist attack and not the same case as other explosions in Athens in recent months.

Image: Badseed, Attiki police headquarters, Athens, 23 July 2007, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; the building in 2007, not Wednesday block in Kolonos.

Sources consulted: Four injured as bag of drugs explodes in Athens apartment block - eKathimerini, 21 October 2026; Athens building explosion leaves four injured after suspected backpack blast - The Independent, 21 October 2026.