an improvised explosive device deposited at Saint-Étienne Cathedral

In the heart of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), Friday April 8, the district of the prefecture was cordoned off by the police. A few minutes earlier, around thirty worshipers from Saint-Etienne Cathedral had been evacuated. In question, a white package of about twenty centimeters, deposited at the foot of the hotel by a man with suspicious behavior. “He came home with a determined step, he crossed the cathedral, he knew where he was going, where he was going to put his package”, confides Aurélien Dreux, sacristan of the cathedral. The package contained a bottle filled with acid and aluminum, two components that can produce an explosion.

The craft, homemade, was devoid of a firing device. No casualties were reported. For the parishioners, it is relief. The 47-year-old suspect was arrested a few hours later, not far from his home in eastern Toulouse. The man was already known to justice. An investigation is opened by the Toulouse prosecutor’s office for attempted murder.