Blasts Wreck Immigrant Home in France; 1 Dead
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CAGNES-SUR-MER, France — Two explosions wrecked a home for immigrant workers Monday on the French Riviera, killing one resident and injuring 12, police said. Authorities said they found evidence that may link the blasts to Jewish extremists.
They said the first pre-dawn blast demolished a car parked at the entrance of the building, which housed 97 people, mostly North African immigrants. Residents were rushing outside when a second explosion minutes later ripped through a stairwell, killing a Romanian immigrant worker, identified as Georghe Yordachescu, 50.
Firemen said they found written tracts in the rubble from an extreme right-wing Jewish group called Masada. The writings contained the words “Islam Must Be Beaten.”
Tracts from Masada, named after a mountaintop fortress in Israel defended by Jews against Roman legions in 72-73 AD, were found last June outside another immigrants’ residence in nearby Nice when a bomb was defused, police said.
However, no one claimed responsibility for the day’s explosions.
Foreign immigrants, especially those from North Africa, have often been made targets of resentment and prejudice in France.
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