PARIS, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- France's interior minister said Thursday one of two parcel bombs detected in Europe was defused only minutes before it was to explode, as governments across the continent are racing to improve the security of air transport.
The two parcel bombs were sent from Yemen via air cargo to the United States but were intercepted in Dubai and Britain. The bombs reportedly contained difficult to detect explosives that would have caused large explosions if ignited.
"One of these parcels was disarmed 17 minutes before the planned explosion," French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux told France 2 television.
Al-Qaida's Yemen cell has claimed responsibility for the parcel bomb plots. Authorities in the African country are frantically hunting for suspected bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri, who is also believed to be behind last year's failed plot to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day.
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Meanwhile, several Western countries have stopped letting in air cargo from Yemen, with national governments in Germany, Britain and France in domestic and multilateral talks how to improve cargo security.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week said she wants to push for tighter air cargo security regulations across the European Union next month at an EU summit.
European security authorities are currently fighting on a second front, as a string of mail bombs from Greece have been set to foreign embassies in Athens and to foreign leaders in several European countries.
Several low-explosive mail bombs were intercepted in Greece Monday and Tuesday on their way to Western embassies. Packages exploded at the Swiss and Russian embassies Tuesday but didn't result in injuries. One mail bomb exploded in a delivery service, injuring one worker.
Two mail bombs made it out of the country: German police Tuesday destroyed a Greek mail bomb delivered to the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italian authorities that same day intercepted an explosive parcel in Bologna addressed to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Greece Wednesday decided to halt international parcel shipments for 48 hours to do additional check-ups on cargo and increase efforts to locate the people responsible for the mail bombings.
Greek police Monday arrested two suspects officials say are members of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, a Greek anarchist group believed to be behind the bombings. One of the men had another parcel bomb in his possession, officials said.
