Greek police check parliament building after anonymous bomb threat

An anonymous caller told Greece's parliament on Sunday afternoon that a bomb had been planted inside the building, prompting an immediate security response, Euronews Albania and Gazeta Express both reported. The man called the parliament's switchboard at 16:49 local time and warned of an explosion, but gave no specific time or deadline for it, according to Albanian outlet Gazeta Shqiptare.

Police and fire service units were sent to the parliament building as soon as the call was received, Euronews Albania reported. Officers from the explosives disposal department, known by the Greek acronym TEEM, arrived at the building with a trained search dog to check the premises for any device.

The search team checked both inside and outside the parliament building, Euronews Albania and Gazeta Express reported. While the checks were under way, police treated the call as a potential threat and investigated whether it was genuine or a hoax, Gazeta Shqiptare said. At that stage, according to Gazeta Shqiptare, no suspicious object had been found and no streets around the building had been closed.

Gazeta Shqiptare's early report, published at 17:55 local time on Sunday, said the call had caused a mobilisation of Greek authorities and that more information about the situation was expected once the checks were finished.

After completing the search, officers found nothing, and the alarm was declared false, Euronews Albania and Gazeta Express both reported. No casualties or damage to property were reported at any point during the operation, and the building was not evacuated, according to the available reports.

The call briefly mobilised Greek security forces around the parliament building in central Athens. It was not reported whether police were pursuing any leads on who made the call, whether the caller used a withheld number, or whether anyone would face prosecution over the hoax.