The parcels in question contained soap made in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Photo: Bernard Gagnon
French town evacuated over 'Made in Syria' soap
The Local � 6 Oct 2015,

In what could have been a scene from a Hollywood film, a French village went into lockdown on Tuesday after several parcels marked 'Made in Syria' were found in a house being renovated. But not everything was at it seemed.

Shortly before noon, police in the village of Bruay-La Buissi�re near Calais received a very disturbing call.

The owner of a property in the centre of town explained he had discovered several mysterious parcels marked 'Made in Syria' and containing what appeared to be explosives.

Alarms bells went off and authorities reacted by book, dispatching a dozen vehicles were to the area as well as establishing a security perimeter.

Traffic was diverted, and locals and shopkeepers were ordered to evacuate.

Around 1,000 students at the nearby Carnot high school were also given their marching orders with emergency workers taking no chances, local daily La Voix du Nord reported.

An hour later, the bomb squad arrived on the scene, and authorities waited with baited breath.

But the tension quickly went down a few notches when the contents were revealed to be none other than soap from the Syrian city of Aleppo, spoiled by a long period in storage.

"An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure," said relieved town mayor Olivier Switaj.

Police, meanwhile, said they had located the tenant of the property at the centre of the drama.

"She explained to use a friend of her son had asked her to store the boxes," they said.

The Local (news.france@thelocal.com)

French town evacuated over 'Made in Syria' soap - The Local http://www.thelocal.fr/20151006/town-evacuated-over-made-in-syria-soap/

If one looks into French household usage of soap, per annum.
I believe it's more a French fear of soap, and little to do with where the soap is made.

Better safe than sorry.. but why would her son's friend ask him, ' store my Syrian soap? And the son not ask his mother or tell her it is there?

Weird..

Could be as simple as evading import taxes.

With such a large influx of Syrians, it would only make sense that they'd want things from "home".

I'd suspect, there's a huge black market for Syrian goods, throughout Europe.

If we automatically skip black markets, and call shenanigans on the "terrorists"... yes, plastique explosives can often be easily disguised as soap.

The French are slowly adapting to muslim fashions.



note: burka's for gays too.

That was my first thought 'plastique' when I seen the pic. That & it seemed waxy , homemade & I wouldn't want to try it. But, I am spoiled with those kinds of things.

Guess that soap wasnt the bomb....

TNT is similar in consistency and Color as Dried up Soap,except that the smell of Toluene is missing in the Soap!