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

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

department store on the

Boulevard Haussmann 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 mostly l ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 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 Guadel ...

(ARC), Action Direct (AD),

Abu Nidal Organization The Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) is the most common name for the Palestinian nationalist militant group Fatah – The Revolutionary Council ('' Fatah al-Majles al-Thawry''). The ANO is named after its founder Abu Nidal. It was created by a sp ...

(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 Founded in 1979, the 15 May Organization or Abu Ibrahim Faction was a minor breakout faction from Wadie Haddad's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO).Emerson, Steven A. & Cristina del Sesto. ''Terrorist: ...

reportedly also claimed responsibility at the time, and the

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

(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 ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

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

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

group. During court procedures, Maamar reportedly had no political motives but 'accepted' the job of the bomb attack offered by the

, 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 and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, 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 m ...

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

Joseph Sieff Joseph Edward Sieff (November 28, 1905 – November 4, 1982,Associated Press (November 5, 1982)"Joseph Edward Sieff, 76" ''The Passaic Herald-News''. p. 31. Retrieved December 14,. 2022. also known as Teddy Sieff), was an English businessman a ...

was a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

. Sieff previously survived an assassination attempt by

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal ( es, link=no, Carlos el Chacal) or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convicted of terrorist crimes, and currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder ...

("Carlos the Jackal") from the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary soci ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paris bombing, 1985-02 1985 building bombings February 1985 events 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 Marketplace attacks in France

Perpetrators

See also

References