FRENCH POLICE arrested 12 people and seized guns in a series of anti-terrorism raids in the south of the country yesterday.
With France on high alert after seven hostages, including five French citizens, were kidnapped by a group affiliated to al-Qaeda in north Africa last month, police confirmed that 11 men and a woman were taken into custody after two separate operations.
Three of the arrests, in Marseilles and Bordeaux, came after the individuals’ names were found on a man recently arrested in Naples who was suspected of being connected to al-Qaeda militants. France has asked the Italian authorities to extradite the man, who is a French citizen.
In another, apparently unconnected, operation, nine people were arrested by Paris-based anti-terrorist police on suspicion of involvement in arms and explosives trafficking. Some guns and ammunition were found during these raids, which took place in Marseilles and Avignon.
Just days after the US, Japan, UK and Sweden warned of possible terrorist attacks in Europe, interior minister Brice Hortefeux confirmed that there was “a terrorist threat at the moment in Europe” and that he would take stock of the situation on Thursday, when he meets European counterparts in Luxembourg.
French authorities said last month that they had received a tip-off that a suicide bomber was preparing an attack on the Paris metro system.