French police probe suspicious package at Paris department store

CNN ^ | December 16, 2008

[rightwingintelligentsia]

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Police evacuated a major department store in central Paris Tuesday after finding five sticks of dynamite inside, French police told CNN.

CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported the dynamite was not rigged to explode, but police did not immediately confirm the report.

French news agency AFP said it received a letter in the mail Tuesday morning, claiming to be from an Afghan revolutionary group and saying that a bomb was at the renowned Printemps department store. The news agency alerted the police, who evacuated the store, AFP told CNN.

The bomb squad found the suspicious package around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) and were still investigating nearly two hours later, police said.

AFP said the letter was signed by a group called "Front Revolutionaires Afghan," or Afghan Revolutionary Front. BFM-TV reported the group is calling for the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by the end of February 2009.