Suspected Corsican separatists blow up houses

French police say a commando of armed men blew up several houses that a mainland French family often rented to tourists in western Corsica.

French police say a commando of armed men blew up several houses that a mainland French family often rented to tourists in western Corsica.

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Police say the masked men burst into one house on late Tuesday and tied up the owner, his wife and their three young children. The men then placed explosives in several of the family's other rural houses and blew them up.

The family was not injured, but the children were examined at a local hospital.

Police suspect autonomy-seeking separatists on the French Mediterranean island are responsible, as they have frequently blown up houses in the past, though rarely sequester people.