Five people were injured, one of them a woman who remains intubated, and extensive damage was caused by three coordinated incendiary attacks using improvised gas canister bombs in the early hours of Wednesday in Thessaloniki. The targets were members of Greece’s ruling New Democracy party.

The homes of Zisis Ioakeimovits, president of the New Democracy Administrative Committee in Thessaloniki, former MP Savvas Anastasiadis, and political candidate Afroditi Nestora were targeted. According to reports, the perpetrators used motorcycles in all three attacks.

The most serious of the three attacks occurred at 4:35 a.m. in the Harilaou district, where a fire, believed to have been started by a gas canister bomb, spread to two cars and two motorcycles.

One of the cars belonged to Afroditi Nestora. Five people were injured in the incident. Her 70-year-old mother suffered severe burns over her entire body and is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit at Hippokrateio Hospital after being intubated.

Afroditi Nestora herself sustained minor burns to her limbs, while her father and two other residents of the apartment building were taken to hospital with respiratory problems caused by smoke inhalation. The fire also caused extensive damage to the two cars and lesser damage to the two motorcycles.

Earlier, at 4:23 a.m., another attack took place in the Toumba district. Unknown individuals ignited a gas canister bomb that had been placed at the entrance of an apartment building where former Second Thessaloniki MP Savvas Anastasiadis lives on the third floor. The explosion cracked a glass panel at the entrance and caused discoloration, but no injuries were reported.

The first attack was recorded at 4:18 a.m. in Pylaia. Unknown individuals placed and detonated a gas canister bomb, but no property damage was caused. The apartment building is owned by Zisis Ioakeimovits, president of the New Democracy Administrative Committee in Thessaloniki, who had previously lived at the property.

The cases have been taken over by the Counterterrorism Unit, which is investigating whether the three incidents, all occurring within less than 20 minutes, were coordinated arson attacks carried out according to a common plan.