200 detonators, explosives stolen from French military site

Thieves broke into the army logistics base in Miramas near Marseilles on Sunday night after cutting through a wire fence.

AFP sign reading “prohibited area” at the Miramas army base in southern France.

It has transpired the base, which stored equipment to supply French military action overseas, had no security and no CCTV – so the thieves were able to roam the 250-acre, 12-building site at leisure and without interruption.

According to Europe 1 radio, around 40 grenades have also been stolen.

Explosives and grenades have been stolen from a French army depot. This is a military site that is highly secure and well guarded by patrols. He said the outer fences were broken into, and that nine storehouses were affected. “Military, police and gendarmerie are now all over the town in order to determine exactly what is missing, what happened and who’s responsible”.

The investigation is focusing on organized crime members as being the perpetrators although terrorists have not been ruled out. As a result, the French Defence Ministry has ordered a review of security at military bases. All state services are on tenterhooks”, Vigouroux said, adding, “There are dogs and everything else that is needed to keep this material safe.

France has been on high alert since a jihadist killing spree six months ago in Paris that left 17 people dead, including 12 people gunned down in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

In the most recent attack in France, a 35-year-old man identified as Yassin Salhi beheaded his boss and tried to blow up an industrial gas plant near Lyon on June 26.

Then interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie had blamed “faults in the site’s security”.