Deutsche Bank CEO Letter Bomb Followed by New Tax Office Explosion
A letter bomb has exploded at an Italian tax collection agency in Rome on Friday.
The agency’s director general, Marco Cuccagna, lost part of his finger but his life was not in danger, according to Italian news agency AGI.
Francesco Tagliente, Rome police chief, told reporters the bomb might have arrived at the offices on Tuesday.
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"As of now, we have received nothing from anyone claiming responsibility, but we do not rule out that an analysis of the explosive could lead us to those responsible," he added.
This attack comes one day after an Italian anarchist group sent a letter bomb to Frankfurt, Germany’s Deutsch Bank Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann.
The letter to Ackermann was from Federazione Anarchica Informale, which is Italian for “informal anarchistic federation.” Investigators said the letter declared the Italian anarchists were responsible for several recent attacks in past years, including a 2003 letter bomb sent to the European Central Bank.
A suspicious brown envelope arrived at the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt Germany on Wednesday addressed to Ackermann. Deutsche Bank's mailroom staff X-rayed the letter and alerted Frankfurt police.
"Initial investigations show it was a functional letter bomb," police said in a statement.
Fox News channel reported Wednesday that the package was said to have contained explosives and shrapnel.
“The authors speak of three explosions against ‘banks, bankers, ticks and blood-suckers,’” police said in the statement. “It has to be assumed that another two letter bombs may have been sent.”
The New York Police Department has since increased patrols at New York City’s Deutsche Bank locations.
“Deutsche Bank is very concerned about this violent attack on our chief executive officer,” bank spokesman Klaus Thoma said in an interview on Friday.
Wednesday's letter bomb was not the first of its kind for Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt headquarters.
Deutsche Bank CEO Alfred Herrhausen was killed by the Red Army Faction, a left-wing terrorist group, in a 1989 roadside bombing.
Since October, angry protesters similar to the Occupy Wall Street movement have been camping out near Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt.
James Margolin, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York, says New Yorkers can rest assure authorities on alert:
“The FBI’s Joint Terrorist Task Force is working with German authorities to assess the incident in Frankfurt and any potential threat to facilities or people here. There is no specific threat to New York associated with the incident at this time.”
