AZF (French initialism for AZote Fertilisant, i.e. nitrogen fertiliser) was the name of a chemical factory near Toulouse, France, which exploded on 21 September 2001. In Spring 2004, a terrorist group adopted the same name and threatened the French government with bombings on railways.
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On 21 September 2001, a huge explosion occurred in the AZF fertiliser factory in Toulouse, France, belonging to the Grande Paroisse branch of the Total group.
Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored (the maximum capacity was 2,000 tonnes) in the hangar #221. The whole factory was destroyed making a crater of depth 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft), with a diametre of 200 m (650 ft); steel girders were found 3 km away from the explosion. The blast measured 3.4 on the Richter scale,[1] with an estimated power equivalent to 20-40 tons of TNT.[2] The explosion was heard 80 km away (50 miles). Due to the acoustics of the hills and the large sound, the explosion was reported as occurring in multiple places. Police at first believed that at least five bombs had simultaneously gone off. There is still controversy over the exact number of explosions.
The factory was close to the city: one of the most inhabited areas, Le Mirail, is just one kilometre away (0.6 miles). Several schools, one university campus, one hospital and a psychiatric hospital had to be evacuated.
The disaster caused 29 deaths (28 from the factory, 1 secondary school pupil from a neighbouring school), 2,500 seriously wounded, and 8,000 light casualties. Two thirds of the city's windows were shattered, causing 70 eye wounds and several thousand wounds which had to be sutured. The full environmental consequences of the catastrophe are not yet completely known. The total damages already paid by insurance groups currently exceed 1.5 billion euros.
40,000 people — 10 % of the population — were made homeless for a few days.
The results of the official enquiry were that a warehouse of ammonium nitrate had exploded following improper handling of this dangerous material.[3]
Specifically it is believed by mandated official experts that "a mislabeled 500kg bin of sodium dichloroisocyanate mistakenly thought to be ammonium nitrate was dumped in the off spec ammonium nitrate warehouse. Here under sufficiently hot and humid conditions it could have reacted with the ammonium nitrate to form nitrogen trichloride which is an exceedingly unstable compound. The decomposition of the nitrogen trichloride could have provided the heat and pressure required to detonate the ammonium nitrate which when used as an industrial explosive typically requires detonators."
On 4 October 2001, France's then Environment Minister Yves Cochet announced that the explosion "may have been a terrorist attack" (the explosion occurred in the weeks following the September 11 attacks) and identified Hassan Jandoubi, a plant sub-contractor killed in the blast, as a person under investigation. French anti terrorist authorities were prohibited by the Toulouse prosecutor from searching Jandoubi's house for five days after the incident.[4]
Police declared that Jandoubi had "possible Islamic fundamentalist sympathies," yet by the time the search was finally conducted, they alleged that Jandoubi's girlfriend had disposed of all traces of his clothes or photos. French authorities described the delay as damaging to the investigation.[4][5][6][7]