Greek police station attacked

ATHENS, Apr 30 (Reuters) Attackers threw a hand grenade and fired 17 rounds with a semi-automatic weapon at a police station in Athens early today, damaging police cars and civilian vehicles but injuring no one.

Police said they were investigating the possible involvement of local guerrilla groups in the attack in the Nea Ionia district, the worst in a spate of strikes on police stations and banks.

Self-styled anarchists and leftist fringe groups have in the past week staged several strikes, including hurling petrol bombs at a central Athens police station, torching cars and forcing officers inside to flee.

They claimed their attacks were in support of jailed comrades.

''It appears to be part of the anarchist attacks we have witnessed over the past few days but we rule out nothing,'' a police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Police were also investigating whether the 9mm rounds used in the Nea Ionia attack came from several weapons stolen from police guards in the past 18 months.

The last attack to be claimed by urban guerrillas was in January when the leftist Revolutionary Struggle fired a rocket propelled grenade at the US embassy in Athens, causing minor damage.

Reuters SS VV1600