Blast in Paris injures 7

Press, 4 December 1978, Page 8

Blast in Paris injures 7

NZPA-Reuter Paris A bomb has exploded in a 'central Paris department is to r e crowded with [Christmas shoppers. The i police say seven people 'were wounded. The police at first announced that one of the [victims, Georgette Ferret, aged 67, had been fatally wounded by the blast. But doctors ,at Vaugirard i Hospital said Mrs Ferret, [who had been hired by the 'Bazaar de Hotel de Ville for the holiday shopping season, 'had been critically injured and had undergone surgery for leg wounds.

The explosion occurred in a basement-level hardware department of the multistorey store, known by its initials 8.H.V., near, the Paris City Hall.

Two other people were in hospital and the four remaining victims had been treated for shock and released, the police reported. An anonymous telephone call to a French radio station said separatists from north-western Brittany were responsible for the bombing. But the police expressed doubt about the authenticity of the assertion.

The B.H.V. store was the target of an attempted bombing on June 26. A sales clerk found a bomb in a box of toys, and alerted the police, who defused it.