Police find incendiary devices at school just before business conference

Police found an elaborate system of incendiary devices at a management school where French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to address business leaders next week.

Photo: Police find incendiary devices at school just before business conference

The devices were discovered at the campus of HEC, an international business school outside Paris that is hosting an Aug. 29-31 conference for Medef, the federation of French business leaders. Sarkozy is expected to speak there Aug. 30.

Cleaning personnel found the devices in a bathroom. The system included 16 bottles filled with an unidentified liquid hydrocarbon, along with three triggers, an electronic timer and a battery, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

The bathroom is near an office that is often used by Laurence Parisot, Medef's president, during the group's annual late-summer conference.

The prosecutor's office said the device would not have exploded but could have sparked a major fire. Anti-terrorism investigators were working on the case.