[caption id="attachment_143734" align="alignright" width="156"] Rescue workers gather at the site of a shooting in Paris, January 8, 2015.[/caption]
An explosion has hit a restaurant near a mosque in the eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saone, but no casualties have been reported.
A local official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the Thursday blast as “a criminal act.”

Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

It is not known whether the explosion is linked to a deadly attack on the offices of Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo a day earlier.

On Wednesday, three masked gunmen stormed into the headquarters of the satirical weekly, gunning down 12 people.

The youngest of the three suspects involved in the Wednesday attack, identified as Hamyd Mourad, has surrendered to police.

The two other suspects, still at large, have been identified as brothers going by the names Said and Cherif Kouachi.

The incident has drawn global condemnation.

In the meantime, France has raised its security alarm level to the highest.

Just minutes before the shooting, the magazine had tweeted a satirical cartoon of the ISIL leader, Ibrahim al-Samarrai, also known as Abubakr al-Baghdadi.

By Press TV

 

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