A letter bomb caught fire at the offices of a senior British MEP today, but no-one was hurt.
It was addressed to Mr Gary Titley, MEP, and was opened by a member of his staff in his office in Radcliffe in Greater Manchester.
It was the third confirmed device targeted on MEPs and the first known to have been sent in Britain.
Italian anarchists are believed to be behind the campaign.
At least two other letter bombs were sent to European Parliament headquarters in Brussels - addressed to German and Spanish political leaders.
All three were similar, concealed in books in brown envelopes .
They were all posted on December 22nd in Bologna - departure point for earlier letter bombs to senior EU officials which have been claimed by previously-unknown Italian anarchists targeting "the new European political order."
The latest packages to turn up in Brussels appear to have passed through European Parliament security screening operations before the earlier devices alerted staff to a Bologna-based threat.
They were then despatched to the offices of the relevant MEPs where they remained during the fortnight-long Christmas break.
One, which was opened by a staff member, was addressed to the leader of the centre-right European People's Party Mr Hans-Gert Poettering.
The other, unopened, device, was sent to the head of the Spanish conservatives, Mr Jose Ignacio Salafranca.
Previous letter bombs were sent to European Commission President Mr Romano Prodi at his Bologna home, to the head of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet and to the to offices of Eurpol, an EU police data-gathering centre in the Hague.