The Vitry-Le-François train bombing of 18 June 1961 was a bomb attack on a

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

–

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 ...

train carried out by the

Organisation armée secrète The ''Organisation armée secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Army Organisation") was a far-right dissident French paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War, founded in 1961 by Raoul Salan, Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques S ...

(OAS), a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

organization opposed to the independence of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

in the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. With 28 fatalities and over 100 injured, it was the deadliest

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

attack in modern French history until it was surpassed by the

November 2015 Paris attacks A series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 21:16, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-De ...

and the

2016 Nice truck attack On the evening of 14 July 2016, a 19-tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, resulting in the deaths of 86 people and injuring 450 others. The driver w ...

, which killed 130 and 86 people, respectively. () The bombing targeted the No. 12 express train, which derailed while traveling at high speed near the small village of Blacy, Marne between

Vitry-le-François Vitry-le-François () is a Communes of France, commune in the Marne (department), Marne Departments of France, department in northeastern France. It is located on the river Marne (river), Marne and is the western terminus of the Marne–Rhine Ca ...

and

Loisy-sur-Marne Loisy-sur-Marne (, literally ''Loisy on Marne'') is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. See also *Communes of the Marne department The following is a list of the 610 communes in the French department of Marne. T ...

. On the day after the derailment, investigators found that the rails had been sabotaged using an explosive device that went off when the train passed over it. It also emerged that the stationmaster at Vitry-le-François had earlier received a threatening letter from the OAS. The sabotage theory was ruled out despite a threat letter being received a few days earlier, prompting Communist Party leader

Jacques Duclos Jacques Duclos (; 2 October 189625 April 1975) was a French Communist politician and member of Communist International (Comintern) who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating ...

to demand an inquiry on the matter. Despite this, the attack was kept secret by the French state.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitry-Le-Francois train bombing Vitry-Le-Francois train bombing Train bombings in France Derailments in France 20th-century mass murder in France 1961 murders in France Organisation armée secrète attacks June 1961 in Europe Explosions in 1961 Neo-fascist terrorist incidents in France Cover-ups Massacres in the Algerian War Mass murder in 1961 1961 in the Algerian War Train wrecks caused by sabotage Improvised explosive device bombings in the 1960s