Terror group threatens to bomb French railways

A previously unknown terror group is threatening to blow up French railway tracks unless it is paid millions of euro.

Information from the group led to the recovery on February 21 of an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line near Limoges in central France, the government said in Paris.

It said the bomb was powerful enough to break a track. It was made from an explosive mixture of diesel fuel and nitrates and had a relatively sophisticated detonator.

The Interior Ministry said the group identified itself as AZF – the same initials as a chemical factory that exploded, killing 30 people, in southwestern France in 2001. Investigators believe that explosion was accidental.

AZF “presents itself as a ‘pressure group with terrorist characteristics,”’ the ministry’s statement said.

“We know nothing of this group but we are taking the threat seriously,” said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Experts examined and tested the recovered bomb, and it “proved to be dangerous” because it broke a rail track, he added.

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 today about the threats after the story leaked.

The group “has sent several letters demanding an important sum of money in exchange for neutralising several bombs it says it has laid, notably under rail lines,” the ministry said in a statement.

Police said the group threatened attacks unless it receives €3m within days. Police do not believe the group has any connection to Islamic terror networks.

President Jacques Chirac’s office and the Interior Ministry received at least three letters that threatened nine railway targets, officials said.

Two magistrates, including renowned anti-terror investigator Jean-Louis Bruguiere, are investigating. Bruguiere is France’s foremost anti-terror magistrate, his previous successes included the imprisonment of infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal.