"Thousands leave Lourdes after threat" by Associated Press | August 16, 2010
PARIS — Thousands of people, many disabled or ailing, were evacuated yesterday from the shrine at Lourdes in southern France after a bomb threat on the Catholic holy day of Assumption. The pilgrims returned after explosives specialists scoured the area.
Really, who would want bomb a bunch of sick and dying people?
About 30,000 people were at the site, whose spring water is reputed to have healing powers, when Lourdes police received an anonymous threat late in the morning saying bombs would go off in the afternoon, said the shrine’s chief spokesman....
About 900 gravely ill pilgrims, including many on stretchers, were taken to a secure place while explosives specialists with sniffer dogs fanned out around the shrine, Mayor Jean-Pierre Artiganave of Lourdes said on France-Info radio....
I'm just wondering what kind of point the "terrorist" was trying to make -- if he EVEN EXISTS!!!
After about five hours, the shrine reopened and Assumption ceremonies resumed.
So they DID NOT FIND a DAMN THING, huh?
The Aug. 15 holiday marks the taking into heaven of the Virgin Mary. It’s a public holiday in France and several other countries, and one on which especially large numbers of pilgrims visit the Lourdes shrine.
The Roman Catholic shrine in the foothills of the Pyrenees has special meaning for the suffering, many of whom believe its spring water has the power to heal and even work miracles.
The sick bathe in pools of the cool water and take it home in plastic jugs and vials. Thousands of people have claimed to be cured there, and the Roman Catholic church has officially recognized 67 incidents of miraculous healing linked to Lourdes.
Who wastes a bomb threat on this?
An abused altar boy?
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