Three hundred people were evacuated from a warehouse in Wambrechies (North), near Lille, Wednesday October 20 around 9 am.
The decision was taken following statements by a man threatening to blow up the Vertbaudet warehouses, a site straddling the municipalities of Wambrechies and Marquette-lez-Lille (North), according to La Voix du Nord.
The suspect was "identified, arrested" at 9.45 am, then "placed in police custody", declared the public prosecutor, Carole Étienne, present on the spot.
This is a temporary worker whose "home was searched".
This person would have "reported to colleagues threats", according to which "he had deposited explosives in the building", she declared.
No trace of explosives has yet been detected on the site, where the buildings of the Vertbaudet group, specializing in children's fashion and childcare, are located.
"There is no element for the moment to give credibility to these threats", but "five teams of deminers, including four with dogs" were dispatched "to decontaminate and check the site," said Ms. Étienne.
"It may take time due to the large surface area of the two warehouses, ie 26,000 m2 and 36,000 m2, but the elements that we have already collected are rather favorable," she confided to La Voix du Nord.
Three hundred people working on the spot were also evacuated and "taken care of at a sports site".
"About 170, were confined in the nearby sports hall Jean-Baptiste Cibié, loaned by the mayor of Wambrecitain", specifies the regional daily.
The suspect does not present, "a priori and with all reservations", any element that evokes a possible radicalization or problems with his employer, said the prosecutor.