Lyon explosion: Seven injured in French city centre

Suspected parcel bomb triggers blast in pedestrian district

French authorities have launched an anti-terror investigation after seven people were injured in an explosion on a busy Lyon street.

Emmanuel Macron said an “attack” occurred in the city centre, leaving seven people with minor injuries.

Officials initially put the figure at eight and later revised it down by one.

Some of the injured were taken to hospital but others went straight home.

There were no fatalities.

The prosecutors’ office said a parcel bomb was the suspected cause of the blast, which occurred at 5.30pm.

French media quoted Denis Broliquier, the mayor of Lyon‘s second district, as saying that an image of the man who deposited the sack or suitcase that exploded was captured by CCTV.

A blurry image of a man on a bicycle was broadcast by BFMTV and CNEWS, with both television channels claiming the man in the photo was the suspect.

But Kamel Amerouche, the regional authority’s communications chief, said the cause of the blast was not immediately known.

Mr Amerouche said the explosion occurred in or outside a Brioche Doree chain bakery.

Police officers blocked off the scene of the blast, a street in Lyon’s second district.

Mr Broliquier said he arrived at the scene minutes after the explosion.

“What I saw was a refrigerated cooler in the Brioche Doree, whose windows had been shattered. It was the windows ... that superficially injured the people who were one, two or three metres away,” he said.

“”But the fridge itself wasn’t that damaged, which means the device had low force,” he added.

“It’s not the apocalypse...there’s no danger. There’s no risk.”

Jean-Pierre, a resident who lives above the bakery, told BFMTV that the noise from the explosion had been “deafening”, but it didn’t cause the walls to shake.

He said a window had shattered and the blast had left some debris on the street.

The district mayor said police officers had not evacuated residents from the area.

The area, the Presqu’ile, is the centre of the city between the Rhone and Saone rivers that run through France’s third-largest city.

The women’s football World Cup is scheduled to start in France on 7 June.

Lyon will host the semifinals and the 7 July final.

Christophe Castaner, the French Interior Minister, said in a tweet that he had sent instructions to Lyon’s authorities to strengthen “the security of public sites and sporting, cultural and religious events.”

Additional reporting by agencies