Nearly 10,000 rail workers fanned out across France's railway network on Wednesday searching for bombs after a previously unknown group threatened attacks unless it is paid millions of dollars.
Information from the group led to the recovery on Feb. 21 of an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line near Limoges in central France, the government said.
Experts examined and tested the bomb, which was powerful enough to break a track, the government said.
PHOTO: AFP
The explosive device was made from an explosive mixture of diesel fuel and nitrates and had a sophisticated detonator, said judicial officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The group identifies itself with the initials AZF and "presents itself as a `pressure group with terrorist characteristics,'" the Interior Ministry said
AZF are the initials of a chemical factory that exploded, killing 30 people, in southwestern France in 2001. Investigators believe that explosion was accidental.
"We know nothing of this group but we are taking the threat seriously," said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Investigators have communicated with the group via a special phone line and newspaper classified ads, officials said.
After a contact on Monday failed, investigators ran an ad in the newspaper Liberation on Wednesday that read, "My big wolf, didn't see your blue scarf. Give me a sign. Suzy."
Anxious that more bombs might be hidden, the national SNCF rail company sent out nearly 10,000 maintenance workers to inspect its 32,000km of track, on foot.
They were looking for such signs as whether track ballast had been moved.
"It's a heck of a job," said SNCF spokesman Francois Remy. The inspection, starting with major lines that carry passengers and dangerous goods, should be completed by midday Thursday, he said.
The terror group "speaks of 10 bombs," he said. "We're inspecting the tracks to see if there are others still there."
The government had earlier urged French and international media not to report the blackmail effort to protect efforts to establish contacts with the group.
But the Interior Ministry released details Wednesday after the story leaked.
The group "sent several letters demanding an important sum of money in exchange for neutralizing several bombs it says it has laid, notably under rail lines," a ministry statement said.
Police said the group demanded US$4 million and 1 million euros. Police do not believe the group is connected to Islamic terrorism.
President Jacques Chirac's office and the Interior Ministry received at least three letters, on Dec. 10, and Feb. 13 and 17, that threatened nine railway targets, officials said.
Security on the network was heightened, but services were normal.
"If I felt that security wasn't assured, we wouldn't run trains," said SNCF chairman Louis Gallois.
Still, the train station in Grenoble, at the foot of the French Alps and busy with ski commuters at this time of year, was evacuated for over an hour Wednesday after authorities received a threat from a person identifying himself as a member of AZF, police said.
No bomb was found.
Two magistrates, including renowned anti-terror investigator Jean-Louis Bruguiere, are investigating.
Bruguiere is France's foremost anti-terror magistrate; his previous successes include tracking down infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
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