France Arrests Citizen Tied to Terrorist Plot in ‘Advanced Stages’
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — France’s interior minister announced on Thursday that a French citizen had been arrested on suspicion that he was involved in a terrorist plot in the “advanced stages” of planning. Bernard Cazeneuve, the minister, said on Thursday evening that France’s domestic intelligence services were raiding an apartment building in Argenteuil, a northern suburb of Paris, after that arrest. “At this stage, there is no tangible evidence linking this project to the attacks in Paris and in Brussels,” Mr. Cazeneuve said, referring to the attacks that killed 130 in the Paris area in November, and the ones in the Brussels area on Tuesday that left at least 31 dead and 300 wounded. Mr. Cazeneuve said that the apartment building in Argenteuil had been evacuated and that a bomb squad was going through the building to ensure “optimal conditions” for police operations. Local residents and witnesses told French television stations that the surrounding area had been blocked off. “This operation followed an important arrest carried out this morning by the General Directorate for Internal Security,” Mr. Cazeneuve said, referring to France’s domestic surveillance agency, adding that the arrest had “made it possible to thwart an attack plot in France that was in advanced stages of planning.” Mr. Cazeneuve, who was speaking from the Interior Ministry in Paris, said the person arrested was suspected of being involved at a “high level” in the plot and was part of a “terrorist network” that planned to carry out attacks in France. The minister did not address whether the suspect had any Islamic State connection. He did not identify the individual or provide further details. France has been under a state of emergency since the Nov. 13 attacks, which were carried out in Paris and its northern suburb of St-Denis by coordinated teams of suicide bombers and gunmen. The suicide bombers who targeted the Brussels airport and subway appear to have been part of the same network. Mr. Cazeneuve said that 75 people linked to terrorist activities had been arrested this year. Of those, 37 were placed under formal investigation and preliminarily charged, and 28 had been detained, Mr. Cazeneuve said. After the attacks in Brussels, the French government announced that 1,600 additional police officers were being deployed to guard border crossings and transportation hubs across France. |