Journalists sneak firearms, explosives into EU summit site

A Belgian journalist armed with a pistol and plastic explosives came within striking distance of French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during last week's EU summit, two Belgian newspapers reported Monday.

Katleen Peeraer slipped past security checks into the Brussels summit venue on Thursday with a Baretta pistol in her baggage, and again on Friday with a bomb made of plastic explosives, and was able on more than one occasion to approach the two leaders while armed.

A colleague separately brought bullets for the pistol into the hotel where European leaders were staying, the Het Laatste Nieuws/De Nieuwe Gazet and Het Belang van Limburg/Gazet van Antwerpen newspapers reported.

A journalist for the program Telefacts, broadcast on the Flemish-speaking VTM network, Peeraer presumably carried out the stunt in order to show up laxness in security procedures.