French police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris early Saturday when they arrested a man about to set off a homemade explosive device, sources close to the case said.
The incident occurred around 3:30am (0130 GMT) in front of a Bank of America building in the chic 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets from the Champs-Elysees.
Police grabbed the man just after he placed a device, made of five litres of liquid believed to be fuel and an ignition system, one of the sources said.
France‘s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office on Saturday said it had taken over the investigation. The office confirmed that a suspect caught in the act was in police custody and said it was investigating “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous means in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and a “terrorist criminal conspiracy”.
Both the Paris judicial police and France’s domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), are involved in the probe, the office said.
‘Vigilance remains at a higher level than ever’
“Well done to the rapid response team from the (Paris) police authority, whose actions thwarted a violent terrorist attack in Paris last night,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. “Vigilance remains at a higher level than ever. I congratulate all the security and intelligence forces, who are fully mobilised under my authority in the current international context.”
The Paris police authority declined to comment. “We are aware of the situation and are communicating with the authorities,” a spokesperson for Bank of America told Reuters.
Read moreInside the French police’s extremism hotline
The suspect was taken into custody, while a second individual who was present fled the scene and remains at large, French newspaper Le Parisien reported on Saturday. The device consisted of a five-litre container filled with an unidentified liquid and an explosive charge made of about 650 grams of powder, Le Parisien added. It was secured and handed over to forensic experts from the Paris police laboratory, it reported.*
Recruited via Snapchat
According to a police source, the suspect said he had been recruited via the Snapchat app to carry out the bombing in exchange for the sum of 600 euros ($692). When the patrolling officers arrested him, he was about to ignite the device with a lighter.
A separate police source told AFP that while he was placing the charge, the accomplice stepped back, apparently to take a photo or video of the crime with his mobile phone.
A spokesperson for Bank of America, whose US headquarters is in Charlotte, North Carolina, told AFP that they were aware of the situation and were in communication with the French authorities.
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nunez, on X hailed the speedy action by the police officers, given “the current international situation”. Since the outbreak of the war of the Middle East, European countries have been on high alert for potential attacks on Iranian dissidents, Jewish places of worship and US-Israeli assets.
Another source close to the case told AFP that the foiled plot appeared to be “the concretisation of the Iranian threat towards American and Israeli interests everywhere in Europe”.
Speaking later to news channel BFMTV, he said he thought the war in the Middle East might have motivated the attack.
“I make a link between the actions carried out in neighbouring countries” and claimed by “small groups that referred to the conflict,” he said.
Earlier this month, Dutch officials said they thought four youths arrested on suspicion of detonating an explosive device outside a Rotterdam synagogue might have been recruited by Iran.
And in Britain, a little-known group aligned with Iran claimed responsibility for a London arson attack last week on four volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation.
Since the outbreak of the war of the Middle East, European countries have been on high alert for potential attacks on Iranian dissidents, Jewish places of worship and US-Israeli assets.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)