Biggest blast yet hits Noumea

The biggest bomb yet exploded in the current spate of trouble in New Caledonia ripped apart the main court complex in Noumea about 3 am on December 3.

The big, and solid, two-storey structure was completely wrecked, with the main courtroom, apparently where the bomb was sited, reduced to a smoking pile of rubble, twisted metal and shattered glass.

Police believe the bombing was the work of a professional with the explosives placed in exactly the right position to do maximum damage.

Buildings all over Noumea were shaken and residents wakened across a large area.

Shortly after daylight a note was discovered in the wreckage calling for the release of the seven men

jailed over the massacre of 10 F.L.N.K.S. suppor ters at Hienghene in the far north of the island in January, 1985. While the note was being treated as a clue, police remain sceptical, saying it may have been deliberately planted to lay a false trail.

The bombing of the court, by far the largest, and in terms of target, the most serious, of the series of terrorist-style explosions to have hit Noumea in recent times came less than 24 hours after an explosion in the basement carpark of a bank building in central Noumea. This bomb was much smaller it wrecked a car owned by a European pro-independence leader, Norbert Caffa but it also shook up the Australian Consulate offices which are in the same building. Sue Williams in Noumea.