Paris: Desperate French workers have threatened to blow up their factory in a row over redundancy pay.
Employees have primed a 5,000-litre gas tank to explode at the entrance to the Sodimatex car parts plant near Paris.
The men have warned they will "raze the entire building to the ground" unless their compensation is doubled.
Bosses told the 92 staff a year ago that the factory in Crepy-en-Valois, which makes car carpets and upholstery, was to close and talks aimed at reaching a deal over pay-offs have since failed.
But tensions escalated when employees blocked a road to the site on Thursday. When heavily armed riot police arrived, workers retreated to the factory and barricaded themselves inside.
Workers' spokesman Fabrice Bel said managers had offered them 790 euros (Dh3,950) for each year worked at the factory, while they were demanding at least double that. Executives from the Treves Group, which bought the factory 17 years ago, said they were urging workers to meet them for talks at the town later yesterday.
