Blast in French city of Lyon wounds 7
An explosion Friday on a busy street in the French city of Lyon injured seven people, local officials said.
The cause of the blast wasn’t immediately known, said Kamel Amerouche, the regional authority’s communications chief. Authorities couldn’t confirm reports that a small package exploded but French President Emmanuel Macron called it an “attack” during a live interview about the European Parliament elections that run through Sunday.
Amerouche told the Associated Press that the victims had leg injuries that weren’t life-threatening.
Authorities said the blast occurred in the central area, the Presqu’ile, which lies between the Rhone and Saone rivers that run through France’s third-largest city.
Amerouche said the explosion occurred in or outside a store of the bakery chain Brioche Doree and that the area had been cordoned off by police. Live television images of the street showed the Brioche Doree sign intact and police vans and an ambulance at the scene.
Earlier, French officials said eight people were wounded, but later lowered the figure to seven.
Macron confirmed that there were no fatalities and sent his thoughts “to the injured and their families.”
The women’s World Cup soccer tournament is scheduled to start in France on June 7. Lyon is to host the semifinals, and then the final on July 7.
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