Jail for railway bomb hoax calls

A PRACTICAL joker who phoned in two fake bomb alerts at Saint-Lazare station in Paris has been jailed for two years.

The 50-year-old man, who has not been named, was caught on CCTV making the hoax calls from a phone box at the busy mainline station on September 30 and October 1.

He has been required to serve at least eight months of his sentence and was also ordered to pay €8,210 in damages to the SNCF and €3,000 to the Paris police authorities.

The court said it was important that the conviction set an example, at a time when Paris is on heightened terrorist alert.

The Paris préfecture de police says the number of suspect packages reported to police has more than doubled in a month.

In September, police received an average of 10 calls a day about potential bombs, up from four in August.

The force has dealt with 1,013 emergency calls relating to suspect packages since the start of the year. The average response time is six minutes.

Interior minister Brice Hortefeux said last month that the terrorist risk in France was "real" and there was "an imminent threat of an attack".

The US and UK governments have both urged citizens living in or visiting France to be vigilent, especially on public transport and around popular tourist spots.

France has issued a similar warning to its citizens in Britain.

France’s national security alert system, called Vigipirate, has been on its second highest level, red, since the July 2005 terrorist attacks in London.

Some 3,400 police officers and 800 military personnel are responsible for patrolling potential targets, such as monuments and official buildings.

Photo: pterjan/flickr