Athens rattled by bomb and threat of Games hotel strike

Athens had a security fright yesterday, nine days before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, when as a home-made bomb detonated near an electrical substation in an outlying area of the capital. The device, a camping-gas canister with a triggering fuse, is familiar to police from scores of similar attacks by anarchist bands that rarely lead to injuries.

Athens had a security fright yesterday, nine days before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, when as a home-made bomb detonated near an electrical substation in an outlying area of the capital. The device, a camping-gas canister with a triggering fuse, is familiar to police from scores of similar attacks by anarchist bands that rarely lead to injuries.

"Residents heard a loud noise at dawn and called police," an officer said. "But they did not find anything and a worker who discovered the damage inside the toilet of the building."

Police said it was not clear if the minor blast, that damaged a deserted building in the western area of Acharnes and caused no injuries, was linked to the Games which run from 13 August until 29 August.

The building belongs to the company maintaining the city's new multimillion-pound ring road, and is close to a substation of Athens' troubled electricity grid. The city has suffered two major blackouts in recent weeks, raising questions over its ability to meet power needs when more than a million visitors arrive this month.

Greece's security forces are implementing ad €1bn (£660m) lockdown to safeguard the first summer Olympics since 9/11. The services also face a potentially embarrassing lawsuit after two Mexican reporters yesterday launched a legal action against the coastguard. The crew from Televista said officers arrested and beat them after spotting them filming at the Olympic port of Piraeus on Monday.

The broadcaster, an Olympic rights holder, said in the lawsuit that the reporters and their translator were thrown into an unmarked car, taken to an officers' gymnasium and assaulted. The Greek government has launched a separate investigation, vowing that any wrongdoing would be swiftly punished.

Athens Olympic organisers described the alleged beating as "highly regrettable" and said there would be no repeats over the next month. The Greek police have an appalling reputation for brutality and were strongly criticised for human rights abuses in an Amnesty International report last year. No Greek police officer has served a custodial sentence for crimes committed while serving.

A new cloud appeared on the horizon for Games organisers yesterday as hotel workers joined the epidemic of strikes threatening to derail otherwise impressive progress in getting the city ready for the Games.

They joined doctors, ambulance drivers, railway workers and taxi drivers, all angrily protesting broken government promises over Olympic-related bonus payments. The government has backtracked on commitments after the budget for the Games soared over £4bn.

A one-day work stoppage by hundreds of low-paid service workers shut off traffic on the city's north-south arterial road. Striking workers, including Greeks and foreign staff, say they earn an average £300 per month, similar to the day rate charged by some of Athens's most expensive hotels. They want salaries doubled to what they say is the minimum wage of €1,100.

"We love the tourists and the people, but we have to survive as well," Nicos Papageorgiou, a hotel worker, said. We can't survive on this." One union leader said: "They [hotel owners] have to take responsibility and deal with the problems we face."

Hoteliers called the strike "blackmail", after a tourism slump for the third consecutive year. They say workers got pay rises through an industrial tribunal ruling in June.