Inside the Mediterranean island Brits call home - but armed rebels are blowing up million-pound properties

A group of armed rebels have begun a terrifying bombing campaign against Mediterranean properties worth millions of pounds.

So far no-one appears to have been killed by Corsica’s armed independence movement – which is why wealthy buyers still don’t appear to have been put off from snapping up homes in the French-administered island.

However, in what many fear is becoming an increasingly brutal series of bombings and arson attacks, in October 2023, 34 residences in 20 towns were targeted in a single fear-filled night.

Since then, a steady slew of residences, in particular second-homes, have been destroyed, reports the New York Times.

Multiple properties have been destroyed as part of a 'terror' campaign (Getty Images)

The self-styled National Liberation Front of Corsica is an armed wing of the island’s political independence movement, which has been gathering strength over the past 50 years since it was founded.

Only last month, over a dozen masked and armed members of the group held a bizarre press conference where they directly warned tourists to cancel their plans.

One member said: “Until our national rights are recognised and respected, we have only one message to send them.”

He added: “Stay home. And, if that’s not the case, do not consider yourself safe on our national territory.”

Corsica does have a large proportion of second homes, up to 50 percent in some coastal areas. This means locals – like residents of tourist hotspots in the UK like Cornwall – complain that they are being squeezed out by rich outsiders.

Unlike Cornwall, which also boasts its own national identity, Corsicans are willing to take up arms against tourism. In 2024, 15 homes were razed to the ground, leading to an anti-terror operation being launched from Paris which resulted in 10 arrests.

Members of the Front de Liberation Nationale Corse (FLNC - National Liberation Front of Corsica) - (Getty Images)

And France has made concessions including the recognition of the local language, which has some similarity to Italian as well as French and granting more freedom to its local government.

“It was a tactical success,” André Fazi, a political scientist at the University of Corsica, referring to the bombings, told The New York Times.

“We consider the fight for the land intertwined with the struggle for Corsica,” he added.

Around 500 Brits are thought to live on the island full-time. While the Foreign Office does not advise against travel to the island, it does warn to be prepared to encounter civil unrest - including political protests and riots triggered by local nationalists.

Corte in the center of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica (Getty Images)

Local estate agent Irène Valentin said she is in touch with wealthy clients some of whom are petrified and others blasé about the risks.

“Some of them are very afraid,” she said. “They know somebody who had a house in the village and the house was burned. They want to come here and they want to be reassured.”

However, not all take the threats seriously.

“They can be very arrogant,” Valentin said. “I say to myself, if they behave that way here, they’ll get their house burned.”