French police arrest Lyon bomb suspects
French police have arrested two men after a suspected parcel bomb exploded in Lyon last week, injuring 13 people. The device, packed with screws and ball bearings, detonated outside a bakery on Friday afternoon.
One of the men arrested, a 24-year-old, is the suspected bomber, prosecutors say. No details have been given on the other. Police had been hunting for a man seen cycling near the scene of the blast wearing a balaclava and rucksack. Anti-terrorist prosecutors are leading the investigation, co-coordinating with Lyon police and France's internal security service, the DGSI.
The explosion struck near the corner of two crowded pedestrian streets in Lyon's historic city centre. Investigators have reportedly recovered screws, ball bearings, along with a printed circuit, batteries and a remote-controlled trigger device.
Denis Broliquier, the city's district mayor, told press that "the charge was too small to kill," and a government source told AFP news agency it had been a "relatively weak explosive charge".
Those hurt, including a girl aged eight, appear to have suffered superficial injuries. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner confirmed one of the arrests in a Tweet on Monday, saying joint action by several agencies had been "decisive". Gerard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon, told local media that a second man was also arrested without giving further detail.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The last time a parcel bomb had exploded in France was in 2007 when a device killed one person and injured another in front of a law office in Paris. Police never found the bomber. Jihadist gun and bomb attacks have killed more than 250 people in France since 2015 and the country remains on high alert, with military patrols a regular feature of security in cities including Lyon.
