On 23 February 1985, a bomb detonated inside a British-owned

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

department store on the

Boulevard Haussmann The Boulevard Haussmann (), long from the 8th to the 9th arrondissement, is one of the wide tree-lined boulevards created in Paris by Napoleon III, under the direction of his Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. The Boulevard Haussmann is mo ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, killing one person and wounding 15. The fatal victim was an employee at the store, Léonard Rochas, who died on his way to hospital. It occurred just as the store was opening its doors for business amid many customers waiting to enter. The blast caused heavy material damage. Two Britons were also among the injured. The Marks & Spencer store had previously been attacked in 1976 and 1981, although nobody was hurt in those incidents and only minor damage was caused. Nobody claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Perpetrators

Several telephone calls claiming responsibility were made, with different callers claiming to represent the

Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance The Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance (French: Alliance révolutionnaire caraïbe) was a militant autonomist organization active in the Caribbean-located overseas department of Guadeloupe in the 1980s. The group demanded the independence of Guadeloup ...

(ARC), Action Direct (AD),

Abu Nidal Organization The Abu Nidal Organization (ANO; ), officially Fatah – Revolutionary Council ( ), was a Palestinian militant group founded by Abu Nidal in 1974. It broke away from Fatah, a faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization, following t ...

(ANO), and an unprecedented group calling itself International Collective Army Against Unemployment. Police however called these claims as not credible enough. The 15 May Organization reportedly also claimed responsibility at the time, and the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

(IRA) was blamed by the media, but they denied involvement saying that it has never carried out attacks on French territory. In May 1986, police arrested and charged suspects Phillipe Frigerio and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

n Habib Maamar in Nancy, the latter of which was reported at the time to be linked to the pro-Iranian

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

group. During court procedures, Maamar reportedly had no political motives but 'accepted' the job of the bomb attack offered by the 15 May Organization, a communist and Palestinian nationalist organisation, lured by profit. Maamar was apparently also the perpetrator of bombing a Marks & Spencer store in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, in December 1983 (not related to the

Harrods bombing The Harrods bombing refers to the car bomb that exploded outside Harrods department store in central London, England, on Saturday 17 December 1983. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army planted the time bomb and sent a warning 37 ...

). He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in December 1989. Marks & Spencer was likely targeted as its former chairman Joseph Sieff was a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

. Sieff previously survived an assassination attempt by

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal () or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convict who conducted a series of assassinations and terrorist bombings from 1973 to 1985. A committed Marxist–Leninist, h ...

("Carlos the Jackal") from the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

(PFLP) in 1973, a group from which the 15 May Organization roots from.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paris bombing, 1985-02 1985 building bombings February 1985 in Europe Building bombings in Paris 1985 murders in France Shopping mall bombings in Europe Palestinian terrorist incidents in France Terrorist incidents in France in 1985 Marks & Spencer 1985 in Paris 1980s murders in Paris Attacks on shopping malls in France

Perpetrators

See also

References