Fears grow of terror link in factory explosion

Speculation grew yesterday that the explosion which killed 29 people in a chemical factory in Toulouse two weeks ago was the result of a terrorist attack and there were accusations of a cover-up by the French authorities.

The French Environment Minister, Yves Cochet, fuelled the speculation when he said yesterday that "new evidence" had emerged of a "terrorist origin" for the blast.

The new evidence proved to be mostly circumstantial. The body of a Tunisian man which was found in the ruins of the factory – but not in the fertiliser store that exploded – was dressed in four pairs of underclothes and two pairs of trousers. Islamist suicide bombers have been known to wear multiple layers of clothing, as a sign of sexual purity.

Friends of the dead man, Hassan Jandoubi, 35, say he often wore many layers of clothes because he was ashamed of his thinness and was, in particular, self-conscious about the narrowness of his buttocks.

Investigators in Toulouse say nothing in the man's background points to terrorist connections. The judicial investigators continue to insist that the explosion – which wreaked destruction across the city and injured more than 3,000 people – was almost certainly accidental. But a fierce argument has broken out in the French press.

The right-wing Paris newspaper Le Figaro has led a group of newspapers which insists that the weight of evidence points to an Islamist terrorist attack. The Toulouse newspaper La Dépêche du Midi retorted yesterday that the "evidence" for a terror attack was based on "manipulated witness statements" and wrong information. The newspaper said it had originally been reported that Mr Jandoubi was listed by Interpol as having extreme Islamist connections. This has proved to be false.

The newspaper said two witnesses, reported by Le Figaro and others as having seen a small explosion on the roof of the fertiliser store before the blast, now categorically denied having made such a statement.

The confusion arises partly because the official explanation – a spontaneous explosion in 300 tonnes of ageing ammonium nitrate fertiliser – is itself scientifically implausible.

The public prosecutor for Toulouse, Michel Bréard, said last week that he was 99 per cent sure the blast was an accident, caused by sloppy storage of the chemicals. Far-right politicians, letter-writers to newspapers and Le Figaro have suggested that this is part of a cover-up to prevent panic and ill-feeling towards the Islamic communities in France.