FRANCE: Explosives found in Paris department store

Record ID: 359368

  • Title: FRANCE: Explosives found in Paris department store
  • Date: 17th December 2008
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 16, 2008) (REUTERS) PRINTEMPS EMPLOYEES CROWDED ON SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF STORE EMPTY PRINTEMPS STORE SEEN THROUGH THE DOORS (SOUNDBITE) (French) OLIVIER, PRINTEMPS EMPLOYEE, SAYING: "We started to work as usual this morning. Two guys pretending to be normal customers showed up asking for specific brands, so we showed them what they were looking for.
  • Embargoed: 1st January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA76JL8Z7YA2X3PCSCPXSB1TNKY
  • Story Text: An employee of a Paris department store says he saw two early morning shoppers behaving suspiciously, as French police find explosives in the lavatories of the Printemps store.
    Explosives were found in a central Paris department store on Tuesday (December 16) following a tip off from a group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, a spokesman at the Paris prosecutor's office said.
    The group called itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front and was not previously known to police The five sticks of explosives were not primed and police said there was no danger of a detonation Olivier, a Printemps employee, described to Reuters the suspicious behaviour of two early morning customers.

    "We started to work as usual this morning. Two guys pretending to be normal customers showed up asking for specific brands, so we showed them what they were looking for. I learned afterwards that they asked for other things from other employees, one was asking for men's clothes, the other for women's clothes, beauty products... it was all pretty incoherent. They had shaved heads and beards of a few days' growth and were wearing tunics. They had no bags, nothing," he said.
    The tip-off was sent by letter to a French news agency, warning that several bombs had been planted in the Printemps department store on the Boulevard Haussmann, which is normally packed with Christmas shoppers at this time of year.
    Police said there was no mention of Islam in the letter, adding that recent attacks in Europe tied to Iraq and Afghanistan had been launched without specific prior warning.
    The letter, posted from Paris on December 15, said one of the devices was in the cistern of a lavatory on the third floor of the store, but did not say where the other bombs were hidden.
    Police said their searches had uncovered explosives in lavatories on the third and second floor of the men's section of the huge Printemps store.
    France has more than 2,600 troops stationed in Afghanistan fighting Taliban forces. Last month, a militant group warned in a video aired on Al Arabia television that it would attack Paris if the French soldiers were not repatriated.
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