Bombs found in French tourist hotspots 08/08/2008 00:00

Three devices have been found and defused in busy tourist resorts in the French Basque country and on a high-speed rail line.

8 August 2008

BAYONNE - Police have defused three explosive devices in busy tourist resorts in the French Basque country and on a high-speed rail line on the Atlantic coast, officials said Friday.

More than 1,000 tourists were evacuated from their holiday homes after firefighters received an anonymous telephone tip-off early Friday alerting them to a total of five explosive devices in and around the Basque country region.

Two devices were found in the Basque village of Arcangues, in a holiday resort and outside the local tourism office, and a third on a TGV rail line linking the Atlantic towns of Boucau et Ondres.

Bomb disposal experts were still searching the three other sites named by the caller: a seafront casino in Biarritz, a restaurant run by star chef Alain Ducasse in the Basque town of Biadarray and a holiday village in Anglet.

Rail traffic was cut the southwestern Atlantic coast following the bomb alert.

Firefighters did give details of the explosive devices.

[AFP / Expatica]