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Paris city rail traffic was temporarily brought to a halt and five stations evacuated evening following a CIA alert of a possible bomb attack, police said. The CIA (The US Central Intelligence Agency) had warned French domestic counter-intelligence of a threat to carry out an attack Thursday on either the Paris suburban rail network or the subway, they said. Traffic was temporarily halted on the A line of the Paris regional suburban rail network, the RER, which also runs through the city centre. Police evacuated the stations after the CIA informed the French of an anonymous message it had received...

PARIS, March 26 (Reuters) - French police have detained three people suspected of having links with a mysterious group which threatened to blow up the country's railway network if it did not receive a ransom, RTL radio said on Friday. It said police were questioning the three after picking them up close to an area where threatening letters sent to President Jacques Chirac and the Interior Ministry were posted. It gave no other details and police did not comment. A group calling itself AZF threatened earlier this year to blow up parts of France's vast railway network if it was...

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...

<p>PARIS (AP) — A French railroad worker found an explosive device buried in the bed of a passenger line between France and Switzerland on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.</p> <p>Bomb disposal experts neutralized the device, which was half-buried under a track in the village of Montieramey, on a train line heading from Paris to Basel, Switzerland, the ministry said in a statement. It was discovered shortly after noon.</p>

<p>A bomb containing several detonators has been found on a French rail line linking Paris to Basel, in Switzerland, according to police.</p> <p>The device "strongly resembled" a previous bomb planted by a shadowy group calling itself AZF which has threatened to blow up parts of France's rail network unless it is paid millions of euros, police said.</p>

PARIS, March 18 (AFP) - French rail traffic was severely disrupted Thursday after police received a threatening phone call, but an oxygen bottle found on the tracks north of Paris turned out to be empty, police said. "AZF, don't touch", read a message written on the gas container, referring to the shadowy group that in recent weeks has threatened to set off explosive devices on the rails unless Paris paid it more than USD 5 million. Police said they had received an anonymous call from a phone booth at about 2:20 pm (1320 GMT), telling them to "look between the...

French Probe Threats by Islamic Group Tuesday March 16, 2004 11:46 PM By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD Associated Press Writer PARIS (AP) - Officials are investigating threats issued by a radical Islamic group against France and its overseas interests, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday. The group identified itself as the ``Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise'' in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and sent to several newspapers, the Justice Ministry said in a statement. The group was not previously known to French authorities. ``A heavy offensive will take place on the grounds of the allies of Satan and...

French rail bomb group issues new threat AFP[ SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2004 06:40:54 AM ] PARIS: The mysterious group that calls itself AZF has issued a new threat to the French government, saying it will bomb the country's rail network unless it receives millions in ransom money, sources close to the investigation said on Saturday. AZF last week made the latest threat in its two-month campaign, saying it would strike targets along France's extensive railways, as well as at "three symbolic sites outside the railways", if it was not paid, the sources said. AZF has "increased its ransom amount" in...

PARIS, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Wednesday criticized the regional Daily La Depeche du Midifor what he called "irresponsible" act to report that the French government was being blackmailed by a terrorist group AZF. While expressing appreciation to other media for keeping the information a secret, Sarkozy held the daily responsible for unveiling the news early on Wednesday despite the ministry's demand conveyed in a statement to newspaper and broadcast editors Tuesday evening for their "confidentiality" and sense of responsibility. The French government has received at least six letters to President Jacques Chirac and Sarkozy since...

£2.8m railway ransom By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris (Filed: 04/03/2004) A terrorist group is blackmailing the French government, threatening to explode 10 bombs it says are already planted beneath railway lines throughout France unless it receives a £2.8 million ransom. French gendarmes patrol railway lines after bomb threats The group, which calls itself AZF after a chemical factory that exploded in Toulouse in September 2001 killing 31 people, has been in contact with the interior ministry since December when it sent its first letter. As a demonstration of intent, on Feb 21 the group directed the police to a...

The French Railways Company, SNCF, is employing about ten thousand staff to search all railway lines for bombs. This follows the discovery of a device near the city of Limoges a week and a half ago. In a letter, an unidentified terrorist organisation had alerted the French government to the presence of the bomb. They warned of nine others planted at sites along the railway network. It has only just become known that the French government has been receiving threatening letters for nearly three months from the organisation, which calls itself the AZF. Last Monday, an attempt to pay the...

(Updates throughout with new details) PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - A shadowy group is threatening to blow up sections of track in France's SNCF state railway network if it is not paid four million euros ($5 million), officials said on Wednesday. The group, calling itself AZF after a chemical factory in southwestern France that exploded in 2001, claims to have hidden 10 bombs around the network and has already directed police to a test model to prove its determination, officials said. The puzzled officials ruled out links between Islamic or Chechen extremists and the hitherto unknown AZF group, which has...

PARIS (Reuters) - An unknown group is threatening to bomb several sections of France's SNCF state railway if it is not paid about four million euros (2.6 million pounds), officials say. The group, which calls itself AZF after a chemical factory in southwestern France that exploded in 2001, has already directed police to one sophisticated timebomb under tracks near Limoges between Paris and Toulouse to prove its technical prowess, they said. French radio and television stations reported the threats on Wednesday morning despite an appeal from the Interior Ministry on Tuesday evening for discretion to allow it to continue its...

PARIS - A previously unknown terror group is threatening to blow up French railway tracks unless it is paid millions of dollars, authorities said Wednesday. Information from the group led to the recovery on Feb. 21 of an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line near Limoges in central France, the government said. The bomb would have been powerful enough to break a track, it said. The government had earlier urged French and international media not to report the blackmail effort to protect efforts to establish contacts with the group. But the Interior Ministry released details about...