Athens, Kolonos: Bag Explodes, Four Injured
A device with a detonator went off when a police officer opened a white bag at the entrance of a building on Platonos Street. Four people were hurt, none critically.
An explosion at the entrance of a residential building in the Athens district of Kolonos on Wednesday afternoon, October 21, 2026, injured four people, including two police officers who had responded to a report of a suspicious object. The news was also carried by Radio-Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS).
According to the Greek outlet Proto Thema, the blast was caused by a low-power explosive device connected to a detonator, which had been placed in a white plastic bag. Investigators are weighing all possibilities and have no firm conclusions yet about the circumstances.
How did the Kolonos explosion happen?
The building manager spotted the bag on the ground floor of the building on Platonos Street. He suspected it contained drugs and called the emergency police line. When officers arrived and one of them tried to open the bag, the device went off.
RTRS, in its own report, gives a somewhat different version: that the caller left personal details and reportedly reported a suitcase containing drugs. RTRS’s headline refers to an explosion during a protest, but its text describes no protest in Kolonos, and Greek sources do not mention one either.
Who was hurt, and how badly?
Two police officers and two civilians were injured, among them the building manager. The officer who opened the bag was hurt worst: he has head injuries and was taken to an operating room at the 401 Military Hospital. His colleague and the two civilians were taken to Evangelismos hospital. According to available information, none of the four is in life-threatening condition.
18 firefighters with six vehicles were sent to the scene, and police searched the building and its surroundings.
What did witnesses say?
The owner of a nearby shop told Proto Thema he heard the bang while he was with friends:
“We were with friends when we heard a bang and thought there had been a traffic accident. We went outside, saw smoke, and a little later they told us it was a bomb.”
He added that help arrived quickly: “The ambulance and the police got here in five minutes. They said there were three injured, I don’t know more than that.” The first reports from the scene, then, did not mention a fourth victim.
A resident of the building told the same outlet she was inside when the blast went off:
“I was here in the building. We heard a bang and went down to see whether there had been a traffic accident. We saw something that looked like a package. Someone went to open it, a police officer, as far as we heard, and the explosion happened.”
According to The National Herald, one resident ran to the most seriously injured officer when he came out of the building calling for help. “He was covered in blood, hurt everywhere,” he said, adding that the officer was conscious. Another resident described the panic and confusion after the blast and said the doors and windows of apartments were damaged.
Was the device a trap for police?
That is the question investigators are only now trying to answer. One hypothesis is that the device was deliberately left as a trap for officers who would respond to a tip-off, and another is that it was a criminal act aimed at a specific target. The National Herald reports that, according to early information, a terrorist attack is becoming less likely, but the nature of the event has not yet been established. Who left the bag in the building, and why, is not known for now.
