Gunmen Blow Up Cabins at Corsica Nudist Camp

Masked gunmen advocating independence for Corsica rounded up nudists and other visitors at a holiday complex Sunday and blew up about 60 vacation cabins, police said. There were no injuries or arrests.

The letters FNLC, for the Corsican National Liberation Front, were scratched into the hood of a car parked at the entrance of the complex.

About 60 masked men entered the Corsicana Foret and Corsicana Village camps on the eastern side of the Mediterranean island about 8 a.m., police said. The Corsicana Village camp caters to nudists.

The gunmen removed about 50 people from the cabins and beaches, bound their hands and held them at a restaurant closed for the winter. Police said about 15 of the hostages were tourists, most of them German.

Bombers placed explosives in about 60 of the complex’s 108 cabins and blew them up four hours later.

The bombing marks the fourth attack claimed by the nationalist movement since November. The FNLC’s aims are to win independence for Corsica and prevent the island from being “colonized” by tourists and other outsiders.

Gunmen invaded the tiny Corsican resort island of Cavallo two weeks ago, overpowered its 16 inhabitants and set off bombs that blew up two restaurants.

A luxury hotel and 40 vacation homes were blown up on Corsica in December.

Tourism and fishing are the main industries on the poor, rugged island of 250,000 people, most of whom are immigrants from mainland France 100 miles away.

The native islanders have their own language and customs and have long resisted cultural domination by France.