Explosives Found, Neutralized on French Rail Tracks
VOA News
24 Mar 2004, 17:27 UTC
French police say they have found and neutralized a bomb containing several detonators on a rail line linking Paris to Basel, Switzerland.
The announcement Wednesday follows several threats to bomb French rail facilities over the past month. Rail workers searched the country's 32,000 kilometers of track early this month after a group calling itself AZF told the government there were several bombs planted along the rails. The group demanded some $5 million in exchange for information about the locations of the devices.
French officials said the group sent several letters to the government, one of which led to the discovery of a bomb placed under the tracks near Limoges, between Paris and Toulouse.
The French government received another threatening letter from an Islamic group after the March 11 commuter train bombings in Madrid, Spain. That group, calling itself "Servants of Allah, the Powerful and Wise," condemned a recent decision to outlaw Islamic headscarves and other religious attire in French public schools.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
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