- Title: FRANCE: NEW RAIL SECURITY MEASURES ANNOUNCED FOLLOWING BOMB THREATS.
- Date: 4th March 2004
- Summary: (W7) ETAMPES, FRANCE (MARCH 3, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN: PLATFORM 0.08 2. GV: TRAIN DEPARTING 0.15 3. MV/PAN: CHAIRMAN LOUIS GALLOIS GREETING STAFF ON PLATFORM 0.25 4. (SOUNDBITE) (French) LOUIS GALLOIS ASKED IF ALL THE NETWORKS WOULD BE CHECKED AND SAYING: " I would say that certain lines that are used twice a year
- Embargoed: 19th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ETAMPES, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVACESA3N2GIFTEMQIKN2AD0P1QL
- Story Text: SNCF chairman Louis Gallois announces new security
measures on France's rail network.
SNCF chairman Louis Gallois told journalists in
Etampes on Wednesday (March 3) that about 10,000 railway
workers had begun inspecting all 32,000 km (20,000 miles)
of track in France after a shadowy group threatened to blow
up sections of track in Frances state railway network.
The inspection of the railtracks will concentrate on the
lines that carry passengers and dangerous substances.
Following the threat, SNCF has requested its workers to
be more vigilant. SNCF also increase passengers security
measures to the Orange level of the four step terror alert
system.
So, they (the SNCF workers) will go with a certain
number of colleagues walking along the tracks to see if
balasts have been moved, if there are any suspicious
parcels or any indications that there is something wrong.
If there is an abnormality we wont touch anything, the SNCF
will notify the police. Nothing can be 100 percent feasible
on 32,000 kms of tracks. We are taking measures that we
think are the most rational and effective to insure
passenger safety. And we consider that this security is
assured and that's why we are running the trains. If we had
any thought that the security was not guaranteed we would
stop running the trains. We take the
responsibility of telling people that they are absolutely
safe to take the train, he said.
The group, calling itself AZF after a chemical factory
in south-western France that exploded in 2001, claims to
have hidden 10 bombs around the network throughout the
country and has already directed police to a test model to
prove it's determination.
The officials ruled out links between Islamic or
Chechen extremists and the hitherto unknown AZF group,
which has sent six threatening letters since mid-December
to the Interior Ministry and President Jacques Chirac.
The group which calls itself a terrorist pressure group
alerted police to a timebomb on February 21 that it had
buried under tracks near Limoges in south-western France.
Police tested it and found it could destroy a section of
track.
The group denounced the government, the school system
and media which it said were too close to power and
threatened unspecified attacks.
French officials expressed concern and anger after
media reported their secret contacts with the group.
Earlier on Wednesday, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy
said the authorities knew nothing about the group but that
they took the threat seriously.
Sarkozy said that Jean-Louis Bruguiere, Frances top
anti-terrorism judge, had been put in charge of a judicial
prove into the case with another investigating magistrate.
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