Image copyright SYLVAIN THOMAS Image caption Counter-terrorism police raided the flat in Montpellier

An "imminent" terror attack on French soil has been averted with the arrest of four suspects in Montpellier, Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said.

Three men and a girl of 16 were found with bomb-making materials by anti-terrorist police in a raid on a flat in the southern city.

Home-made explosives similar to those used in the Paris attacks of November 2015 were discovered.

Reports suggest the girl had made jihadist declarations online.

Since the beginning of 2015, at least 230 people have been killed in jihadist attacks in France.

Last week, a soldier received minor injuries when a machete-wielding man tried to enter the Louvre museum in Paris.

The man, a 29-year-old Egyptian named Abdullah Hamamy, was shot and critically injured.

Photos from the scene in Montpellier show debris outside the door of the flat that police stormed on Friday morning.

Early reports suggested that one of the Montpellier detainees was a would-be suicide attacker.

A local news site, M6 Info, said the four were planning to attack a tourist site in Paris but a police source told AFP news agency that investigators had not been able to establish the exact target.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The police raid on the flat discovered bomb-making materials

The suspects were arrested after buying acetone, a police source told AFP. Acetone is an ingredient used in the making of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a high explosive.

TATP, the same explosive used in bomb vests worn by militants in the Paris attacks, was found in the city along with the acetone, a judicial source said.

According to AFP, the female suspect had been spotted on social networks saying she wanted to leave for the Syria-Iraq conflict zone or mount an attack in France instead.

She recorded a video in which she pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State (IS), M6 Info reports.

Meanwhile, France's top constitutional court struck down a law which penalised those who consult jihadist websites.

The Constitutional Council found that the law infringed on people's freedom of communication unnecessarily.

Separately, prosecutors in Denmark charged a 16-year-old girl with attempted terrorism for allegedly planning to bomb two schools in and around Copenhagen, one of them Jewish.

The girl, a convert to Islam, was arrested in Kundby, near the capital, in January last year, and had been held in custody ever since.

Prosecutors believe she was trying to prepare TATP herself. She will go on trial in Holbaek in April.

A 25-year-old man arrested in the same case has been released without charge.</s>Four people, including a 16-year-old girl, have been held by French police after bomb-making materials were found at the home of one of the suspects near Montpellier in southern France.

French Interior Minister Bruno Leroux said the police had foiled an "imminent terror plot".

A police source told AFP that four suspects aged 16, 20, 26, and 33 were arrested after they bought acetone which could be used to make an explosive device.

The prosecutor's office said that police had infiltrated the property of the 20-year-old and found acetone and 70 grams of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), the same explosive used by Islamic State (Isis/Daesh) in the 2015 Paris attacks.

The girl said on social media that she wanted to take part in the Syria-Iraq conflict or plot an attack in France, according to AFP. She reportedly posted a video pledging her allegiance to IS on 8 February.

She was planning to travel to Syria with a fake passport, according to BFM TV channel.

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned that the "terror threat in France is very high". The country has been on a high terror alert since the 2015 Paris attacks. A state of emergency was declared in July after a terrorist drove a 19-tonne truck through the centre of Nice, killing 86 people. On 3 February a man wielding a machete was shot outside the Louvre by a French soldier.</s>Four, including 16-year-old girl, held in France over ‘imminent’ attack

French police officers are seen in this file picture in Paris, November 18, 2013. French police today arrested four people in southern France on suspicion of preparing an attack. — Reuters picPARIS, Feb 10 — French anti-terrorist police today arrested four people in southern France on suspicion of preparing what Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said was an “imminent” attack.

The arrests in Montpellier and the nearby town of Marseillan “foiled a plot to carry out an imminent attack on French soil,” Le Roux said in a statement

A police source said the four — who included a 16-year-old girl — were arrested after buying acetone, a highly flammable liquid that can be used to make bombs.

The other suspects were all men, aged 20, 26 and 33, the source said.

“It seems that they intended to go through with it and to make several explosive devices.”

The teenager had used social media to try to find ways of travelling to Syria to join up with jihadists, the source said, adding that the 20-year-old had been her mentor and was under surveillance.

France remains on high alert after a wave of attacks that began two years ago, claiming more than 200 lives.

Last week, a soldier shot and wounded a machete-wielding attacker who lunged at him outside the Louvre museum in Paris while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Investigators have identified the man as an Egyptian and are trying to establish whether he had any link to a jihadist group.

Le Roux has said that French authorities have foiled “no fewer than 13 plots involving more than 30 individuals”, including women and minors, since the Bastille Day truck massacre in the Riviera city of Nice that claimed 86 lives.

Three female jihadists were arrested in September after the discovery of gas cylinders packed in a car near Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

In November, police broke up a terror ring plotting an attack in France, jailing four Frenchmen and a Moroccan who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS).

France, one of the most active members of the US-led coalition fighting the Sunni extremist group, has been the worst hit among European countries targeted by attacks claimed or inspired by IS.

France’s parliament voted in December to extend a national state of emergency until July 15, after this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

It was the fifth extension of the state of emergency, which gives police extended powers of search and arrest.

Security and fears about Islamic extremism are key issues ahead of the two-round presidential election in April and May. — AFP</s>Anti-terrorism forces arrested four people Friday in southern France, including a 16-year-old girl, and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with the explosive TATP and other ingredients for fabricating a bomb. France's top security official said the raid thwarted an "imminent attack."A police official said the teen had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in a recent video.The prosecutor's office said around 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of TATP were seized in the Montpellier-area home of a 20-year-old man, along with a liter each of acetone, oxygenated water and sulfuric acid. TATP, which can be made from readily available materials, was used in the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels carried out by Islamic State extremists.Two other men were arrested, a 33-year-old and a 26-year-old, along with the teenage girl, according to the prosecutor's office, which handles terrorism investigations in France.The police official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, said one of the suspects was believed to be planning a suicide attack but that the investigation had not yet uncovered a specific target.He said person in the group had tried to reach Syria in 2015 and was known to intelligence services. The group - notably the girl - attracted new attention with their social media postings, he said.Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said the arrests in three locations in the Montpellier area "thwarted an imminent attack on French soil."The country's prime minister praised the work of anti-terror investigators."Faced with the heightened threat, there has been an extremely strong mobilization of our intelligence services to ensure the French are protected to the utmost," said Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.France is still under a state of emergency after several deadly attacks in 2015 and 2016.(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)2/10/2017 7:49:25 AM (GMT -6:00)</s>An “imminent” terror attack on French soil has been averted with the arrest of four suspects in Montpellier, Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said.

The BBC reports that three men and a girl of 16 were found with bomb-making materials by anti-terrorist police in a raid on a flat in the southern city.

Home-made explosives similar to those used in the Paris attacks of November 2015 were discovered.

Reports suggested that the girl had made jihadist declarations online.

Since the beginning of 2015, at least 230 people have been killed in jihadist attacks in France.

Last week, a soldier received minor injuries when a machete-wielding man tried to enter the Louvre museum in Paris.

The man, a 29-year-old Egyptian named Abdullah Hamamy, was shot and critically injured.

The post French police avert ‘imminent’ attack, arrest four suspects appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.</s>PARIS: Anti-terrorist police on Friday arrested four people in southern France, including a 16-year-old girl, who were suspected of preparing an “imminent” attack linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The arrests in Montpellier and the small nearby town of Marseillan “foiled a plot to carry out an imminent attack on French soil,” Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said in a statement.

Police sources told AFP the four were arrested after buying acetone, a highly flammable liquid that can be used to make bombs.

The 16-year-old girl had recorded a video in which she pledges allegiance to the IS extremists, sources close to the case told AFP. The other suspects were all men, aged 20, 26 and 33.

“It seems that they intended to go through with it and to make several explosive devices,” one source told AFP, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Searches turned up small amounts of TATP, the homemade explosive used by IS jihadists in attacks on Paris and Brussels, the source said.

The teenaged girl had used social media to try to find ways of travelling to Syria to join up with the jihadists and had posted her video pledging allegiance to IS on February 8, the security sources said.

The 20-year-old man, her alleged mentor, had been under surveillance and is suspected of planning to blow himself up, a source said.

France remains on high alert after a wave of attacks that began two years ago, claiming more than 200 lives.

Last week, a machete-wielding attacker was shot and wounded outside the Louvre museum in Paris while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) after he lunged at a group of soldiers.

A 29-year-old Egyptian man, Abdallah El-Hamahmy, was formally charged with attempted murder and terrorist activity on Friday having recovered sufficiently in hospital to face a judge.

Investigators are still trying to establish whether he had any link to a jihadist group.

French authorities say they have foiled 13 plots involving more than 30 individuals, including women and minors, since a truck massacre in the Riviera city of Nice last July that claimed 86 lives.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Friday that hundreds of arrests have been made since the start of 2016.

“These individuals were either preparing to carry out attacks or were linked to terrorist groups ordering attacks,” Cazeneuve said during a visit to La Souterraine, in central France.

“We face an extremely high terrorist threat that requires us to take measures to assure the protection of our citizens at all times,” he said.

Three female jihadists were arrested in September after the discovery of gas cylinders in a car near Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

In November, police broke up a terror ring plotting an attack in France, jailing four Frenchmen and a Moroccan who had pledged allegiance to the IS.

France, one of the most active members of the US-led coalition fighting the Sunni extremist group, has been the worst hit among European countries targeted by attacks claimed or inspired by IS.

The French parliament voted in December to extend a national state of emergency until July 15, after this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

It was the fifth extension of the state of emergency, which gives police extended powers of search and arrest.

Security and fears about Islamist extremism are key issues ahead of the two-round presidential election in April and May. – AFP</s>A notorious terrorist recruiter linked to a string of Isil-inspired attacks in France has been killed in an American drone strike in Iraq, French police sources said on Friday.

The report came as French police thwarted an “imminent” suicide attack, possibly on a Paris tourist site, with the arrests of four suspected Isil recruits, including a 16-year-old girl, who were manufacturing explosives.

Rachid Kassim is believed to have been killed on Wednesday near Mosul, an Isil stronghold in northern Iraq. The 29-year-old Frenchman allegedly masterminded the murders last year of a French police couple and that of an elderly priest whose throat was slit in a Normandy church. He was also linked to the attacks at Brussels Airport and the city's subway in March which left 32 dead.

French sources said the information had come from the US military and French intelligence was checking that it was Kassim who died, according to BFM television.

Kassim was a leading online Isil recruiter who was also linked to a failed attempt to set off explosives near Notre-Dame cathedral in the heart of Paris.

After the Nice lorry attack last July, video footage appeared online showing Kassim beheading captives. He directly threatened President François Hollande and warned that Isil was planning more attacks in France.

Isil-inspired terrorists have killed more than 230 people in France since the beginning of 2015 and the country remains under a state of emergency.

The arrests on Friday were made near Montpellier, in southern France, after intelligence agents monitored social media postings by the teenage girl, named locally as Sara, in which she said she wanted to attack France and go to Syria or Iraq.

The law was introduced last June, seven months after the Paris attacks that left 130 dead. Intended to curb the influence of jihadist websites and online propaganda, it set a two-year prison sentence for consulting jihadist websites regularly, making exceptions for purposes of research or informing the public.

Judges ruled yesterday (Fri) that the law was unconstitutional because it infringed freedom of communication, saying France had other laws to protect the public from attacks and jail potential terrorists.

However, several attacks have been carried out by suspects under surveillance. One of the two 19-year-old Isil recruits who attacked a church in Normandy during mass last year was under house arrest and wore an electronic tag. A court had allowed him to go out without the tag for several hours a day.</s>Four people, including a 16-year-old girl, have been arrested in the French city of Montpellier on suspicion of plotting a suicide attack in Paris after explosives were seized in a raid.

French anti-terrorism forces arrested the people yesterday and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with the explosive TATP and other base ingredients for fabricating a bomb, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

The prosecutor's office said around 70 grams of TATP were seized in the home of a 20-year-old man in the Montpellier area, along with a liter each of acetone, oxygenated water and sulfuric acid.

TATP, which can be made from readily available materials, was used in the November 2015 attack in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels carried out by Islamic State extremists.

Two other men were arrested, a 33-year-old and a 26-year-old, along with the 16-year-old girl, according to the prosecutor's office, which handles terrorism investigations in France.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the unfolding investigation, said one of the suspects was believed to be planning a suicide attack but that the investigation had not yet uncovered a specific target.</s>French counter-terrorism forces arrested four people on Friday, including a 16 year-old girl, on suspicion of planning an attack and uncovered a makeshift bomb factory, Paris prosecutors said.

It is believed police foiled an imminent attack.

Investigators carried out the raid in the Montpellier area of southern France after monitoring the teenage girl’s social media accounts in which she talked about wanting to attack France and her desire to go to Syria or Iraq.

Her boyfriend, 20, who was among those arrested, is suspected of planning to carry out a suicide attack.

He is thought to have been planning to target a tourist site in Paris, according to French media.

About 70 grams of TATP, a powerful but unstable explosive popular with Islamist extremists, as it can be made from readily available ingredients, were discovered during the operation, along with other bomb-making materials, syringes and gloves.

“The four suspects were arrested after they bought acetone,” according to the source, referring to a highly-explosive liquid that can be used as an ingredient to make bombs.

TATP was used in the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015 and the Brussels attack in March last year. The other two suspects in detention are aged 26 and 33.

France remains on high alert over possible Islamist militant attacks.

More than 230 people have died in a series of assaults since the beginning of 2015 and the country has been under a state of emergency since November 2015.</s>PARIS—Anti-terrorism forces arrested four people Friday in southern France, including a 16-year-old girl, and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with the explosive TATP and other ingredients for fabricating a bomb. France’s top security official said the raid thwarted an “imminent attack.”

A police official said the teen had pledged loyalty to Daesh in a recent video.

Read more:Tourists held in lockdown as French soldiers thwart attack on Louvre

The prosecutor’s office said around 70 grams of TATP were seized in the Montpellier-area home of a 20-year-old man, along with a litre each of acetone, oxygenated water and sulfuric acid. TATP, which can be made from readily available materials, was used in the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels carried out by Daesh extremists.

Two other men were arrested, a 33-year-old and a 26-year-old, along with the teenage girl, according to the prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism investigations in France.
French police arrest three men and a 16-year-old girl found with bomb-making materials in a Montpellier flat. The female suspect had been spotted online saying she wanted to either leave for the Syria-Iraq conflict or mount an attack in France, and recorded a video in which she pledged allegiance to ISIL.