At 10:17 AM on September 21, 2001, a powerful explosion happened in the fertilizer plant (chemical industry), AZF, close to TPZ premises in Toulouse. The explosion was heard tens of kilometres away and resulted in the deaths of 31 people and more than 2 500 injured. As this happened only one week after the World Trade Centre terrorist attack in New York, the level of panic was high. All the fixed and mobile telecom networks were down until the evening, so no one could know exactly what had happened, except those close who happened to be close to the chemical plant.

Contradictory instructions were given to the public, to return home or stay in their working place. Some hundreds of thousand people evacuated Toulouse area using their cars, on crowded highways, and some individuals had been injured due to the explosion of their car windows from the blast. This disorder continued until the end of the afternoon, when official information could finally be spread via radios and TVs. At Telespazio, that day, some 100 people had to follow the emergency evacuation procedure, without knowing the exact situation, and without any way of knowing what had happened to their dear ones.