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Large Semtex cache stolen in France
Enough Semtex to make 56 bombs the size of the one used in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has been stolen from a French castle. The 28 kilograms of the explosive were discovered to be missing yesterday along with an unknown quantity of detonators, but the Interior Ministry said they could have been taken more than a week ago. The Lyon depot is situated in a disused 19th century castle at Corbas near Lyon and is used by a civil defence unit to store explosives needed for bomb disposal workers. "A theft of explosives used by bomb-disposal experts to destroy munitions retrieved from former battlefields has taken place," said a statement from the Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. The statement said there had been "security failings" which gave the thieves their chance. The Semtex is now being searched for by French anti-terrorist police who fear it could be used to attack civilian targets. Semtex is favoured by terrorists because it is powerful, has no smell and is almost impossible to detect. "The investigation has to find out how they could have been stolen," a police source said, adding that the authorities were taking the theft "very seriously."
Posted by: lotp 2008-07-20 |
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