MARSEILLE, France Bombs damaged public buildings in two French cities overnight and three masked bombers were caught red-handed in Corsica before their explosives could blast a bank there, police said on Saturday. The biggest blast tore a large hole out of the facade of the building in Marseille that houses the regional council for the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region. Police said the explosion late on Friday caused no casualties and they suspected Corsican separatists were behind it.

Nobody has claimed responsibility. In Bayonne, in the French Basque country, a pre-dawn bomb blast damaged a building housing the town hall and a bank branch, police said. Again, there were no injuries and no statements claiming responsibility. Three masked men were arrested in Ajaccio, capital of the island of Corsica, as they tried to place a bomb in front of a bank branch there, police said.

(Reuter)