A CRUDE bomb exploded at a Paris mosque early yesterday, damaging the entrance and slightly injuring the caretaker of the building, police said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion at 4.30 a.m. (3.30 a.m. Irish time), which also shattered windows of nearby buildings along the Rue de Tanger in north eastern Paris.
The concierge of the Adda'Wa Mosque was taken to hospital with hand injuries. "He is not seriously hurt," a police officer said.
The bomb was placed at the entrance of the building, apparently in a fire extinguisher staffed with gunpowder with a slow fuse.
"We have no clues yet to guide the inquiry," police said.
A bomb last December planted by suspected Algerian Muslim extremists killed four people in an underground train in Paris. Algerian guerrillas accuse France of backing the military authorities in a war against them.
Algerian Islamic militants claimed responsibility for a previous bombing wave in 1995 which killed eight people and injured almost 200. Last December's bomb, and many of those in 1995, were explosives packed into hollowed out gas canisters.
The 1995 wave of bombings was heralded by the shooting dead of a Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abdel Baki Sahraoui.
. A car bomb exploded in a Muslim guerrilla stronghold in Algiers, killing four people and wounding 30, according to reports. Unconfirmed reports said two other car bombs exploded in two nearby districts, killing at least seven people.