Anarchists claim responsibility for Rome blasts

Rome: An Italian anarchist group has claimed responsibility for two parcel bombings that targeted the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

A statement to that effect was recovered from a small box found next to one of the two embassy workers who were injured in the explosions.

The group in question calls itself the Federazione Anarchica Informale, according to Ansa.

Police searched embassies and consular offices in Rome after two people were injured in separate parcel bomb blasts on Thursday at the Swiss and Chilean missions in the Italian capital. The Mayor of Rome described the blasts as a "wave of terrorism against embassies".

A Swiss employee at his embassy received serious hand injuries while one person was slightly hurt at the Chilean embassy in the parcel bomb blasts, BBC reported.

Both were opening packages when they exploded.

A suspect package was also reportedly found at the Ukrainian embassy.

The explosion at the Swiss embassy occurred around midday (1100 GMT), a spokeswoman for the embassy said .

The Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, said: "It's a wave of terrorism against embassies, something much more worrisome than a single attack."

In a separate incident, a suspicious package was found at the European Union's embassy in Switzerland forcing the authorities to evacuate the mission.

Most of the area around the EU embassy was also evacuated, police said, noting that no specific threat was included with the package addressed to EU Ambassador Michael Reiterer.

Thursday's attacks in Rome came a month after a series of parcel bombs were sent to embassies and European leaders from Greece.

The majority of those 14 packages were intercepted by police and destroyed, including some addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which arrived at the chancellery office in Berlin, and others to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, found inside a cargo plane at Bologna Airport.

On Tuesday, a suspected bomb was found on an empty underground train in Rome. The device lacked a detonator and tests showed it contained no explosive.

Protests by students over government reforms in the education system have gripped Italy over the past week, with Rome the scene of some of the most serious rioting.