A BOMB exploded at offices of the French bank Paribas in what may have been a protest against French nuclear tests, France's consul in Arnhem and Dutch police said.
The bomb badly damaged the building housing the bank's offices and blew out windows up to 100 metres away late on Tuesday night, but no one was injured, a police spokesman said.
"It was a bomb," he said, adding that the damage indicated a fairly large device.
"We haven't had any calls claiming responsibility, although we believe it could be related to protests against French weapons testing in the Pacific," he said.
"We cannot prove that, but there have been worldwide protest against the French tests and we're guessing there's a link there," he added.
Mr Benoit Monseignon, chairman of Banque Paribas NV in the Netherlands, declined to comment on the causes. But he said the company was tightening up security at its network of nine Dutch branches, which mainly offer corporate banking.
"We're doing what is necessary. . . But if someone sends you a bomb in the middle of the night there's not a lot you can do about it," Mr Monseignon said.
The police said they were investigating whether the explosion could be linked to a bomb attack last October on the Arnhem office of Credit Lyonnais, another French bank.
"No one claimed responsibility for that attack and it's a point of the investigation to see whether there is any link," the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the French embassy in The Hague declined to comment directly on the explosion. "We have no comment because we don't know who did it and why," he said.
. A European court dismissed a lawsuit filed by three French Polynesians who had asked for a temporary ban on French nuclear tests in the South Pacific, the plaintiffs' attorney announced.
The trio had asked the European Union's Court of First Instance to overturn an October 23rd ruling by the European Commission which allowed France to pursue its series of controversial tests, which have sparked worldwide outrage.
But Mr Antonio Saggio, the EU court's presiding judge, dismissed their claim, saying they were "not directly concerned" by the Commission's decision. The judge said that the three plaintiffs should have taken their claim before a French court rather than the EU's legal body.