Flagship tourist attraction Futuroscope evacuated in bomb scare

Description:

The region's flagship tourist attraction Futuroscope was evacuated on Saturday evening, after two men informed a park employee that there were four explosive devices hidden inside the huge tourist attraction.

The two men approached the park employee outside of the attraction, and then drove-off at speed, making it impossible for the registration number to be taken, although a full description of the car including the model and the colour, was given to gendarmes investigating the incident.

The incident happened at around 6pm, and some 8,000 visitors were calmly evacuated from the site.  160 gendarmes were then deployed to search the 60 hectare park, a task that took the rest of the evening to complete.

This is only the second time in 20 years that the park has had to be evacuated, and this time it seems that the threat was a hoax.  The Gendarmerie has launched an investigation and, if caught, the culprits could face a prison sentence.