French counter-terror police ‘foil planned suicide attack at Paris tourist spot’

From the French edition of The Local

French police have arrested four people in Montpellier, including a teenage girl, who were reportedly plotting an imminent terror attack in Paris. Bomb-making material was found at one of their addresses.

Officers from France’s counter-terrorism organisation SDAT made the four arrests in Montpellier and Sete on the southern French coast early on Friday morning. 

Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said police had foiled an “imminent attack on French soil”, just the latest in a long line of thwarted plots in recent months.He confirmed that homemade explosives were found by police.

The male suspects were reportedly aged 21, 27, 34. Police also arrested a 16-year-old girl who was known to police for having expressed a desire to travel to Syria. She had reportedly pledged allegiance to the terror group Isis.

One of the arrested men was described as her “mentor” and was being closely watched by French intelligence services, a source told AFP.

Police found 71 grammes of the explosive TATP in the apartment as well as acetone and a litre of sulphuric acid. “The four suspects were arrested after they bought acetone,” a police source told AFP, referring to a highly-explosive liquid that can be used to make bombs…A separate source told L’Express newspaper: “We think they had a project ready to carry out, but at this stage we do no know where or when.”