Anarchists suspected over embassy blasts

Mail bombs exploded in the hands of employees at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome today, seriously injuring two people and triggering heightened security checks at diplomatic missions just as holiday deliveries deluge their mailrooms.

Italian investigators suspected the attacks were the work of anarchists, similar to the two-day wave of mail bombs which targeted several embassies in Athens last month – including those of Chile and Switzerland. One of last month’s booby-trapped packages, addressed to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, was intercepted in Italy.