(The New York Times published the following Reuters article on March 21.)
PARIS — French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday there was a possible link between the discovery of the deadly toxin ricin in a Paris railway station and a terrorist threat but he had no concrete proof.
Two small flasks with traces of the poison were discovered on Monday in a luggage locker at the Gare de Lyon mainline railway station which serves the south of France, the Interior Ministry said late on Thursday.
Speaking on French radio, Sarkozy there could be a link to a series of arrests made near Paris late last year of Islamic militants who French officials believe were planning at least one attack on Paris.
“One can make a link, but we have no proof as it stands,” Sarkozy told Europe 1 radio.
“We also found some acetone and ethanol. A mixture of the three can make an extremely nasty poison,” he added of the discovery.
However he said the amount of ricin involved in the actual find was a “non-lethal quantity” and stressed he had no specific information suggesting an attack had been under preparation.
Ricin hit world headlines in January, when British anti-terrorist police arrested several people in connection with the alleged discovery of ricin in a north London flat apartment.
Separately, an Interior Ministry spokesman said the inquiry into the new find was being conducted by an anti-terrorist unit of the French police but no leads had been unearthed so far.
France said last December four suspected Islamist militants arrested that month near Paris were without doubt preparing at least one attack on French soil. The raids linked to their arrests unearthed possible bomb-making devices.
The four men, three Algerians and a Moroccan, have been placed under formal investigation, which under French law is the final step before charges are formally made.
A senior police officer told Reuters on Thursday the ricin had been found after a squad visited the rail station as part of anti-terrorist measures which had been stepped up due to security concerns linked to the Iraq crisis.
The ricin announcement came the same day judicial sources said police had arrested two suspected Islamic radicals linked to a Chechen network thought to be recruiting fighters for the rebel Russian province and preparing terror attacks in France.