Corsican separatists blamed as holiday homes blown up

Armed men have blown up several houses that a mainland French family rented to tourists in western Corsica, French police said today.

Officers said the masked men burst into one house and tied up the owner, his wife and their three young children. The men then placed explosives in several of the family’s other rural houses and blew them up.

The family was not injured but the children were examined at a local hospital.

Police suspect autonomy-seeking separatists on the French Mediterranean island are responsible, as they have frequently blown up houses in the past.