A 53-year-old Turkish national of Kurdish origin has been arrested by police in Thessaloniki, and is believed to be linked with a heavy weaponry cache discovered in a basement apartment in Triandria, Thessaloniki, on October 4 last year following a handgrenade explosion in which a 32-year-old Kurd was killed.

The suspect was located and arrested Tuesday afternoon in Thessaloniki by virtue of an outstanding warrant against him issued after his fingerprints were found in the apartment. He is charged with felony counts of construction, supply and possession of explosive materials for the purpose of putting human life at risk, and for procurement and possession of war material for the purpose of illegally supplying an organised group.

The handgrenade explosion was attributed by authorities to an accident.

The 32-year-old Kurdish national killed in a handgrenade explosion in the Triandria apartment on the night of October 4, 2011, was believed to have been connected with armed Kurdish organisations, after the discovery of a cache of heavy weaponry in the basement apartment in Triandria. The man had submitted an application for political asylum in March 2010 in Athens, and had been living in Thessaloniki since April that same year.

A search of the ruins of the apartment turned up heavy weaponry and explosives. The weaponry, which was hidden in a secret compartment in the apartment's kitchen, included an eastern-made anti-tank weapon armed with a 64mm M80 shell, a Kalashnikov submachine gun with four rounds, a Scorpion submachine gun, an AK machine gun, an older model machine gun, ammunition of various diameters, 14 handgrenade detonators, six handgrenades, two anti-personnel mines and five kilos of explosive material.

A few hours after the explosion, the organisation DHKP-C, in a proclamation, said that the 32-year-old was a member of the organisation and a participant in operations in the Black Sea, while it also asked forgiveness from the "brotherly Greek people", adding that its "only consolation" was that "no harm was done to the Greek people" from the accident.