False Bomb Threat Prompts Evacuation of Bayonne Mosque, Police Investigation

The alert came from a letter signed by the Front for the Liberation of Free France, discovered shortly after 9 a.m. In this letter addressed to "Muslim, Islamist, Salafist friends" and which France Bleu Pays Basque had access to, the authors claim that a "fairly well-designed" bomb has been placed at the Bayonne mosque and that it is "small enough to be very difficult to detect".

Quickly, the area was cordoned off. The national police, with the help of Sentinelle military personnel and a canine team, carried out checks that yielded nothing. The police device was lifted late in the morning. The previous Wednesday, Biarritz airport had also been targeted by a false bomb alert received by email. The site was evacuated for an hour and air traffic was not disrupted.