Bomb Rips Paris Subway Attack Injures 29, Mocks Police Effort To Stop Terror Campaign Waged By Algerian Insurgents
Mocking the efforts of desperate police, the bombers terrorizing France blew up another crowded subway car Tuesday, turning it into a mass of mangled steel.
The bomb wounded 29 people, blowing off the legs and feet of some riders. Authorities described it as a steel canister filled with explosives and hex nuts - the trademark device of Algerian insurgents who have waged a terror campaign in the French capital since midsummer.
Rush hour was nearing full swing when when the blast shredded the second car of the RER regional subway train at 7:05 a.m., just as it passed the Orsay Museum in the heart of Paris.
Silver-helmeted firefighters carried writhing victims on stretchers out of the Orsay Museum station, where commuters described a darkened tunnel filled with smoke and cries for help from injured passengers.
Red-and-white police tape ringed the entrance to the station next to the art museum, and fire, police and rescue vehicles filled the street. Helicopters airlifted the most seriously hurt.
The site of the attack seemed to mock authorities’ efforts to halt the terror campaign by Algerian extremists, who have claimed responsibility for seven other deadly bombings or attempts. Islamic militants object to France’s financial support of the military-installed government in Algeria, a former colony.
The explosion occurred between the St. Michel and the Orsay Museum stations along the Seine River in central Paris and across from the Louvre Museum. The subway line is a main artery used by commuters living in middle-class suburbs south and west of the French capital.
“We’re all a little bit traumatized right now. It’s happened too many times,” said Anne Guescoux, who fearfully took the same subway line to her suburban home late Tuesday.
“There’s a psychosis now among the population. No one knows what to do.”
Officials issued an alert for a dark blue BMW with three people aboard that had been spotted in the area, but no arrests were made.
The bomb was a commercially available steel gas canister, a slightly smaller version of the propane containers used on many barbecue gas grills. Police say the terrorists unscrewed the valve, packed the canister with hex nuts and explosive powder and replaced the valve, attaching a detonator activated by a timer.
Shrapnel from the bomb severed the feet of several passengers, according to Olivier Lamour, a doctor on the scene.
President Jacques Chirac, cutting short a trip to central France, expressed his “indignation” at the latest attack and he said he was determined “to do everything to prevent and repress this fanatic violence.”
France’s wave of bombings began July 25 at the St. Michel station, when a similar device killed seven people and wounded 84. Tuesday’s bombing raised the injury toll since then to at least 155.
Interior Minister Jean-Louis Debre said police - already omnipresent with 14,500 extra soldiers and police on the streets - would step up patrols further and that more identity checks would be conducted.