The Capitole train bombing was the bombing of a Le Capitole train on the

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 ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...

near

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

on 28 March 1982. The attack killed five people and injured 28 others.

Bombing

On March 28, 1982, a high-speed Le Capitole was travelling between

and

when bomb exploded in the first of the fifteen passenger cars. The bomb exploded at about 9:30 p.m. when the train was near the town of Ambazac, about northeast of

, about three hours after the train had left Paris. The train, which carried between 300 and 400 passengers, was traveling at between when it exploded. The engineer was able to bring the train to a halt after about a mile without it derailing, but wreckage blocked the track in both directions of travel between Limoges and

Châteauroux Châteauroux ( ; ; ) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Châteauroux te ...

. Three of the cars on the train were severely damaged and two of the blast victims were thrown from the train. More than 200 rescuers arrived to help free passengers that were trapped in the train, a process that took several hours. Rescuers had to walk more than half a mile (1km) down the tracks to reach the wreckage. After the passengers were freed, the train was towed to the train station in Ambazac. The bombing was the first time that train passengers in France had been killed by an explosion of a criminal nature. Two other train blasts had occurred in France before, that caused only minor injuries. The bombing was claimed by a group calling itself "International Terrorist Friends of Carlos", and was later attributed to

Venezuelan Venezuelans (Spanish language, Spanish: ''venezolanos'') are the Citizenship, citizens identified with the country of Venezuela. This connection may be through citizenship, descent or cultural. For most Venezuelans, many or all of these connect ...

terrorist

Carlos the Jackal 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, ...

. In 2011 Carlos was convicted for the bombing whilst he was already serving

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

. The attack was followed with the bombing of an anti-Syrian newspaper office in Paris in April.

References

{{coord missing, France 1982 murders in France Crime in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Improvised explosive device bombings in 1982 Train bombings in France Railway accidents in 1982 March 1982 in Europe Mass murder in 1982 Terrorist incidents in France in 1982 History of Haute-Vienne 20th-century mass murder in France Communist terrorist incidents in Europe

Bombing

See also

References