lennart
25-03-04, 16:14
French bombers threaten to return
A shadowy group that threatened to bomb the French rail network if not paid a large ransom has suspended its threats, French officials say.
But the group, which calls itself AZF, warned it could return with attacks worse than the Madrid train bombings, in a letter to the interior ministry.
"Pay up... or else France will surpass ingloriously the sad records of Spain," the AZF statement read.
It followed Wednesday's bomb find on a track between Paris and Switzerland.
A bomb disposal squad made the device safe.
The authorities said they did not know whether that incident was linked to AZF.
(...)
Earlier on Thursday officials said there had been renewed contact with the group via Liberation newspaper, reported French news agency AFP.
The interior ministry reportedly placed two messages in the personal column in mid-March, posing as an art dealer wishing to buy works by the sculptress Camille Claudel.
The first message prompted a telephone call the same day from a female group member, with instructions for a ransom drop at an airfield near Paris.
After she was told the weather conditions were not right she said she would call back at a later date.
Since then the ministry has received another threatening letter but no more telephone calls, officials said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3567369.stm
A shadowy group that threatened to bomb the French rail network if not paid a large ransom has suspended its threats, French officials say.
But the group, which calls itself AZF, warned it could return with attacks worse than the Madrid train bombings, in a letter to the interior ministry.
"Pay up... or else France will surpass ingloriously the sad records of Spain," the AZF statement read.
It followed Wednesday's bomb find on a track between Paris and Switzerland.
A bomb disposal squad made the device safe.
The authorities said they did not know whether that incident was linked to AZF.
(...)
Earlier on Thursday officials said there had been renewed contact with the group via Liberation newspaper, reported French news agency AFP.
The interior ministry reportedly placed two messages in the personal column in mid-March, posing as an art dealer wishing to buy works by the sculptress Camille Claudel.
The first message prompted a telephone call the same day from a female group member, with instructions for a ransom drop at an airfield near Paris.
After she was told the weather conditions were not right she said she would call back at a later date.
Since then the ministry has received another threatening letter but no more telephone calls, officials said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3567369.stm