Bomb prank on Santorini ferry follows real threat near Larisa

Greek police authorities on Thursday received a prank call about an explosive device allegedly placed inside a ferry en route to Santorini from Pireaus.

The prank call left many passengers stranded in Santorini as they waited for police and the coast guard with a sniffer dog to complete checks in three passenger ships scheduled to leave.

"Nisos Samos" ferry was scheduled to leave at 12:30 but departed at 13:30, the "Champion Je" catamaran was expected to leave Santorini at 12:25 but was delayed until around 14:40 and the last one to leave was the "Hellenic Highspeed".

All three ships are currently on their way to Piraeus.

The prank call follows an incident near Larisa on the same day where a navy underwater bomb disposal unit carried out a controlled explosion at the beach of Kato Sotiritsa, after a beach-goer called the coast guard to report three suspicious objects found just five metres from the beach, inside the water.

Greek Coast Guard officials were the first on the scene and quickly sealed off the area until the bomb disposal squad arrived.