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French tighten security after deadly train blast
Anti-terrorist plan reactivated
In this story:
December 3, 1996
Web posted at: 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT)PARIS (CNN) -- French authorities were put on special alert at airports and train stations Tuesday after a bomb tore through a Paris commuter train, killing two people and injuring more than 80. Officials said they reactivated a nationwide security plan drawn up after a series of terrorist bombings last year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's blast, which occurred during evening rush hour.
"It's starting again," said Estelle Campos, 30, standing near the subway station and clutching her 6- and 12-year-old sons. "It's always the same people who pay."
Sources said the bomb was fashioned from a 28-pound (13 kilo) gas canister, similar to those used by Algerian Muslim fundamentalists who claimed responsibility for most of last year's bombings.
Europe 1 radio, citing sources close to the investigation, said the canister was packed with nails, and that one body was mutilated by the shrapnel. French radio said some passengers had seen an abandoned package on the train before the explosion.
Officials said the blast occurred at 6:05 p.m. (12:05 p.m. EST/1705 GMT) at the Port-Royal station, a ground-level station on the RER regional line used by thousands of commuters in and out of the French capital. RER lines run both above and underground.
The Port-Royal station is located on the city's Left Bank, between the Boulevard St. Michel and the Boulevard Montparnasse on the edge of the Latin Quarter.
(533K/13 sec. QuickTime movie of scenes outside the station after the blast)
CNN's Jim Bittermann reports from Paris
(257K/24 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
Police step up patrols
"There was an explosive device that was put in a subway car," French Prime Minister Alain Juppe told reporters. He said officials put back into effect an emergency vigilance plan activated after France was hit last year by eight subway bombings that killed eight people and wounded 160.
The security plan, called "Vigipirate," involves police and army patrols in sensitive public areas and spot checks across the country.
Interior Minister Jean-Louis Debre said France was tightening its borders as a precaution, and train stations and airports across France were on alert and increasing security.
President Jacques Chirac condemned what he called "these unacceptable acts, these barbaric acts that always attack innocent people."
"The government and I are determined to fight against terrorism in all its forms. Nothing will be neglected," Chirac said in a news conference outside the presidential Elysee Palace.
CNN's Peter Humi reports from Paris
'Totally blown apart'
Tuesday's blast took place in a carriage of the RER train. Witnesses said the scene was one of panic, of thick black smoke, the chilling wail of ambulances, and paramedics frantically carrying away the wounded, thrashing on stretchers.
"We heard a strong blast," one witness said. "There was a column of black smoke (and) a strong smell of powder, like at a shooting range," she said.
The train car was a burned-out hulk of wreckage, its doors blown off by the force of the blast, and a second car was damaged. "It was totally blown apart," said a man who lives above the station.
The explosion occurred on the same line, and just two stations away, from the worst of last year's bombings, which killed eight people at the St. Michel RER station.
Officials said the bomb exploded on one of the first cars of a long subway commuter train heading toward the southern Paris suburb of St.-Remy les Chevreuse.
Paris Bureau Chief Peter Humi and Correspondent Jim Bittermann, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- French officials say bomb caused deadly train blast - December 3, 1996
- French car bomb escapade ends in Belgium - March 30, 1996
- Bomb explodes on Paris subway - October 17, 1995
- Third bomb in three days rocks France - October 8, 1995
- Two bombs, two days in France - October 7, 1995
- Bomb blast wounds 13 in Paris - October 6, 1995
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