Tens of thousands of pilgrims were evacuated from the Lourdes complex after a bomb scare on one of the shrine’s busiest days.
A bomb threat at the French Marian shrine on the feast of the Assumption caused police in the town in the Hautes-Pyrénées to clear the entire shrine complex as they searched for explosive devices.
The police moved 30,000 people from the Basilica of the Rosary, the underground basilica of St Pius X, l’Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes as well as the grotto where St Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary and the baths where pilgrims seek cures. At around midday pilgrims were asked in six different languages to make their way to the nearest exit via loudspeakers.
