Greek police say they found weapons and explosives in an Antifa anarchist squat in the city of Thessaloniki, saying the squat was being used as a base to plot attacks against police and political opponents.
Police raided the Terra Incognita squat on Monday and released a list of items found at the building which has been illegally occupied by far-left Antifa anarchist militants since February of 2004.
Among the items discovered by police during the raid were various containers containing flammable materials, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), firecrackers taped to gas canisters, a fake ID card, helmets and other protective equipment along with electronic devices, Proto Thema reports.
Investigators also found €1,500 in cash and a book listing financial contributions to the anarchist group.
According to newspaper Kathimerini, the squat is believed to be a base for Antifa anarchists and used to prepare attacks against police and others.
The group is said to have been behind attacks on the offices of centre-right New Democracy MPs Stratos Simopoulos and Anna Efthimiou earlier in the year as well as an attack on the home of Achilleas Beos, mayor of the city of Volos.
Earlier this year, police in Thessaloniki foiled an attempted plot to bomb the home of conservative former Minister of State Dimitris Stamatis, arresting two Antifa far-left militants.
The pair, a 27-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman, were arrested after the man tried but failed to detonate an IED hidden in his backpack. Later police raids in homes associated with the pair saw more homemade explosives and weapons found.
The raid also comes just months after police in Paris raided another Antifa squat, dubbed “Paris HQ Antifa75,” and also found explosive material and dozens of Molotov cocktails.
Antifa violence has grown across many countries in Europe in recent years, with plots to kill police discovered in France and an Italian militant arrested last month in France in connection to the bombing of a police barracks in Rome in 2017.
In Germany, domestic security services have expressed fears that extremist elements within Antifa could begin targetted assassination attempts on both police officers and political opponents in the near future.