1.
EXTERIOR GV PAN: down front of bomb-blasted Mercedes building as firetender pulls up.
'0.18

2.
MV: glass scattered on pavement.
0.21

3.
MV: shattered windows of offices (2 shots)
0.27

4.
CU: place where bomb exploded.
0.30

5.
MV PAN: debris
0.42

6.
MV: street cleaners sweep up broken glass and wreckage.
0.53

7.
MV: fireman removing debris from balcony.
0.58

8.
MV: man brushes debris from roof of car.
1.04

9.
Mercedes building PULL BACK TO GV street.
1.12


The man killed in the block of flats had tried to throw the bomb back into the street. This block of flats is used by a West German firm for its business conferences. On October 19, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the German Goethe cultural institute at Nancy in Eastern France. The same day, three petrol bombs thrown under West German touring buses.




Initials RH/1545



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A bomb exploded early on Sunday (23 October) in the Paris showroom of the West German car firm, Mercedes Benz. No one was hurt.

SYNOPSIS: The Mercedes Benz offices are in central Paris. Police believe the bomb was set off as a protest against the deaths of three urban guerrillas and terrorists -- Andreas Baader, Jan-Carle Raspe and Gudrun English -- in a West German jail last week.

The bomb blew out plate glass windows and damaged several cars both inside the showroom and parked nearby in the street. The blast occurred in the early hours of Sunday when this commercial section of Paris is almost deserted.

The explosion was the latest in a series of attacks against West German targets since the Lufthansa hijack ended and the Baader-Meinhof gang members allegedly killed themselves in Stammheim top-security prison.

The Mercedes Benz headquarters and major production plants are in Stuttgart, where Stammheim jail is also sited. This attack came two days after a bomb went off in a block of Paris flats, killing one person.