PARIS, March 3 -- A previously unknown group has threatened to blow up sections of France's main railway track unless it is paid millions of dollars, according to news media reports and French officials who have been involved in communications with the organization since last month.
The group, which goes by the initials AZF, led police last month to a bomb it had left on a section of track near Limoges, in central France. An Interior Ministry official quoted in one news report said the explosive device was a time bomb that was "complex, efficient and in working order."