Arrests made after explosives found in Paris
October 3, 2017
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Tuesday that a number of people are currently in custody after authorities discovered a homemade explosive device in a Paris neighborhood over the weekend.
French police arrested five people after discovering several gas cylinders outside a residential building in Paris's 16th arrondissement, or district, early Saturday.
Speaking with public radio station Franec Inter, Collomb confirmed that an investigation into the possible attempted bombing is ongoing and that one of the detained suspects was "radicalized."
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"(Police) services are investigating," Collomb said. "What I can tell you is that among the people who were arrested, one was... radicalized"
A security source told French news agency AFP that police found two of the gas cylinders in the hallway of the building and two others on the sidewalk outside.
A mobile phone attached to the cylinders is being investigated as a possible detonator, AFP reported.
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Collomb said the discovery of the device in western Paris highlighted that France was still at risk of terror attacks.
"We've foiled numerous attacks since the start of the year that would have involved many deaths," the minister said. "We are still in a state of war."
The incident came the same weekend as a deadly stabbing in the French port city of Marseille. Soldiers shot dead the knifeman after he killed two young women at a train station in the city. Although the so-called "Islamic State" group claimed the attack, the man's motives are still unclear.
French lawmakers in the lower house of parliament are due to vote on Tuesday on a new counter-terrorism law that rights groups and United Nations experts have criticized as giving too much power to police.
Over 241 people have been killed in a wave of attacks in France since 2015.
rs/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters)