Paris - French police have defused five explosive devices planted in a large downtown Paris department store, LCI television reported on Tuesday.

Police were sent to the Printemps store on the famed Boulevard Haussmann after a letter from a group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front saying that the bombs had been planted in one of the shop's buildings was sent to a French news agency.

The building, a part of the Printemps Men's Department, was evacuated as police carried out their search. (dpa)