France finds railside bomb

A French railway worker found a bomb half-buried on the main line between Paris and Switzerland yesterday, alarming commuters across Europe and jolting financial markets just two weeks after the Madrid train bombs.

Bomb experts detonated the device and the Interior Ministry made no mention of any Islamic threat in a statement about the discovery, but the dollar slipped against the Swiss franc which is often a refuge currency.

The ministry said the makeshift device, consisting of a nitrate-based fuel in a plastic container, was discovered around midday concealed under the track near the city of Troyes about 150 kilometres southeast of the French capital.

"An SNCF worker was doing his rounds near the tracks and noted something unusual," a spokeswoman for railway said. Traffic was suspended in both directions.

The state-run railway said it was ordering thousands of staff to carry out the second inspection in a month of the entire 32,000 kilometres network, which carries 2.5 million people daily.

Despite the scare, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Rafferin completed a scheduled regional election campaign trip by plane to the historic city of Troyes. Officials said the visit had been agreed at the last minute and ruled out any link.

French railways and airports have been on red alert since bomb blasts on trains in Madrid on March 11 killed 190 people. Spanish police have arrested 13 people, including 10 Moroccans, for their alleged role in the bombings.

The Interior Ministry said the device, half-buried between the rails and gravel, had been made safe by bomb disposal experts. Forensic scientists at the main police laboratory were examining the device "to ascertain how dangerous it was".

The ministry said the homemade bomb comprised a small transparent plastic box containing nitrate fuel, a battery linked to a detonator and a timing device.

The ministry did not say who was suspected of planting the latest device but added that it did not resemble one left by a shadowy group calling itself AZF which is demanding cash and threatening to blow up parts of the track.

Last week financial markets still jittery after the Madrid attacks were unnerved by the discovery of a fake bomb on the main high-speed line linking Paris and London. The alert forced a temporary suspension of services.

That incident appeared to be the work of AZF, whose threat to blow up parts of the network prompted an initial exhaustive search of rail tracks on March 4.