ROME — Package bombs exploded Thursday at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, seriously wounding the two office workers who opened the envelopes and prompting a citywide inspection of international diplomatic missions, authorities said.
An envelope the size of a page of printing paper exploded at noon at the Swiss Embassy, seriously wounding the mailroom worker who opened it, according to Agostino Vitolo, a spokesman for the Carabinieri military police in Rome. Vitolo said the victim sustained serious injuries and underwent surgery at a local hospital.
Another package bomb exploded at the Chilean Embassy at 2:27 p.m. local time, injuring the hands and face of the person who opened it, according to Sonia Di Clemente, a spokeswoman in the Rome police department.
Scientific experts and the bomb squad of the state police were investigating the scene of the explosion, Di Clemente said, adding that investigators were working closely with the Italian Foreign Ministry to check all the embassies and consulates in Rome for suspicious packages.
Vitolo said another suspicious package reported by the Ukrainian Embassy turned out to be a “false alarm.” The explosions came as many Americans prepared to travel to Europe for the holidays and echoed the attempted bombing of 12 embassies and two foreign leaders in Athens last month. Two Greek men were arrested in connection with that foiled attempt.
“It’s a wave of terrorism against embassies, something much more worrisome than a single attack,” Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, said outside the Swiss Embassy earlier in the day.
He added that international, rather than domestic, culprits were believed to be behind the attacks. Vitolo said there were no immediate leads or any assertions of responsibility. He said investigators were looking into a theory that international anarchists might have sent the package bombs.
Paula Thiede, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Rome, said Italian security officials immediately notified the embassy after the first attack.
“It did not require us to take any additional or expanded measures because we already had appropriate security measures in place,” Thiede said.
