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Threat Assessment: French Chemical Plant Explosion Not Criminal, Official Says French officials Tuesday said no criminal act caused the explosion of a chemical plant in Toulouse last September (see GSN, Oct. 5, 2001). “I maintain and repeat: the possibility of an attack, or of a criminal act, is no longer being considered at all,” said Toulouse public prosecutor Michel Breard. “Everything is coming together to suggest it was an accident” (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 15, in FBIS-WEU, Jan. 15). In a statement released Tuesday, the owners of the plant said they believe an electrical malfunction was responsible for the explosion. Magnetometric measures found electromagnetic field variations along a line passing near the ammonium nitrate storage site to two electrical transformers, the statement said. Several people were shocked and disturbances were seen in computer equipment just before the explosion occurred (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 15, in FBIS-WEU, Jan. 15).
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