LYON (France) - FRENCH anti-terrorist police are investigating after 28 kilos of explosives were stolen from a security services bomb-disposal depot at Corbas, near Lyon, police said.
An official said on Friday that plastic explosives, almost certainly Semtex, had been taken from the facility along with detonators.
France's Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a statement that the incident stemmed from 'known failings within the site's own security', adding that the site chief had been 'immediately suspended' and a full probe ordered.
The incident comes just weeks after a French special forces soldier fired live bullets into a crowd of families attending a demonstration at a base open day in the country's south-west.
The explosives were found to have 'disappeared' on Friday, with police adding that the materials could have been removed as far back as one week ago.
The official refused to comment on a newspaper website's accusation that the depot was unguarded at the time.
'A theft of explosives used by bomb-disposal experts to destroy munitions retrieved from former battlefields has taken place on a site adjacent to the supply depot...,' the minister's statement said.
'The investigation has to find out how they could have been stolen,' said the police source, adding that the authorities in Paris are 'taking this case very seriously'. Detectives in Lyon are investigating along with the country's anti-terrorist squad.
Police described Semtex as a powerful explosive, odourless and practically impossible to detect, which is regularly used by terrorist organisations. -- AFP
