Attack
The bomb exploded inside a suitcase at the Turkish Airlines check-in desk in the airport's south terminal, sending flames through the crowd of passengers checking in for a flight to Istanbul. The bomb consisted of a half kilo of Semtex explosive connected to three portable gas bottles (which explained the extensive burns on the victims).
Three people were killed immediately in the blast and another five died in hospital. Four of the victims were French, two were Turkish, one was American, and one was Swedish. The death toll made the Orly bombing the bloodiest attack in France since the end of the Algerian War in 1962. The dead included a French child, and a man with dual U.S.-Greek citizenship. The dual national was identified as Anthony Peter Schultze, who was studying in Paris and came to the airport to see off his Turkish fiancée. She was out of the check-in area when the bomb exploded, and was uninjured.
ASALA claimed responsibility for the attack.
French Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy came to the airport and condemned the attack, promising to find and punish the perpetrators. Later he visited the hospital where the most seriously injured were being treated.
The Orly bombing came only five days before the second Armenian World Congress was due to open at Lausanne.
Read more about this topic: Orly Airport Attack
Famous quotes containing the word attack:
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—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.”
—Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)
“I make this direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war, if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against attack by the Axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack in another war later on.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)