Five arrested over McDonald's bombing

One person was killed in the attack

Five suspected Breton activists have been arrested in connection with a fatal bomb attack on a McDonald's outlet in western France last month.

A 27-year-old female McDonald's employee died in the 19 April attack, which also blew off part of the roof of the building, shattered windows and left a large crater.

Three men and two women were arrested by anti-terrorist police. One was the spokesman of Emgann, a group seen as a front for the Breton Revolutionary Army, known by its French initials ARB.

The ARB issued a statement to the newspaper Journal du Dimanche on Sunday denying it planted the bomb which exploded at the drive-in counter outside the McDonald's at Quevert, near Dinan in northern Brittany.

Second attack

However, in the same statement the group said it had bombed another McDonald's restaurant five days before the attack in Quevert.

On Tuesday, Justice department sources confirmed the claims by the Breton separatists.

This attack - on the restaurant in Pornic, near Nantes - happened on 14 April and went unreported publicly at the time.

Justice sources said the director of the Pornic McDonald's had filed a complaint for break-in and damages, but local police failed to fully investigate because the damages were slight.

They returned to investigate after the ARB claim and found there had been a bomb explosion.