Bomb scare shuts down Paris department store

French police found dynamite in a Paris department store Tuesday, a bomb scare during the holiday shopping season that was accompanied by an unknown group's demand for the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.

The five relatively old sticks of dynamite planted in the men's department of the elegant Printemps store were not attached to a detonator and did not pose a risk, authorities said.

After evacuating the jampacked store in the heart of the downtown shopping district about 11 a.m., police used bomb-sniffing dogs to find the explosives, which a warning letter sent to a French news agency had said were in a restroom.

The letter was signed by the "Afghan Revolutionary Front," a group unknown to French intelligence services, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told legislators in comments in the National Assembly.

Despite the rhetoric about Afghanistan, the type of explosives, the language of the communique and other details were not consistent with previous activity by Islamic extremist groups, anti-terrorism officials said.

"We must be wary of the indications in the letter that could orient investigators toward false leads," Alliot-Marie said at the scene, where hundreds of police oversaw an orderly evacuation. She announced that security would be stepped up in Paris and other cities during the holidays.

The incident came during a heightened terrorist alert in Europe. On Friday, French police arrested two suspects tied to a group in neighboring Belgium that allegedly sent militants to train and fight in Afghanistan. Belgian police rounded up an additional 14 suspects because of fears that a suspect recently returned from Afghanistan was preparing a suicide attack.