Bomb discovered on French railway line
A bomb was discovered today buried on a French rail line leading to Switzerland.
Bomb disposal experts defused the device, which was half-buried under a track in the village of Montieramey, on the from Paris to Basel, the Interior Ministry said. It had been spotted by a rail employee
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The Interior Ministry said the device did not resemble bombs described in threats by a mysterious and previously unknown group calling itself AZF.
The group claimed to have planted nine bombs along the country’s rail network and has threatened to explode them unless it is paid millions of pounds.
The group’s threats, first disclosed in early March, appeared in at least three letters sent to the offices of President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in December and February
The letters, demanding €5m, threatened railway targets.
Information from the group led to the recovery in February of a sophisticated explosive device buried in tracks near Limoges in central France.
The device was contained in a see-through plastic box and comprised of nitrate fuel and a flat-shaped battery linked to seven detonators, the ministry said.
Tests showed that the Limoges bomb was powerful enough to rupture the track, the government said at the time.
It was made from a mixture of diesel fuel and nitrates and had a sophisticated detonator.
