FranceLink

Minister says recent arrest foiled 9/11-style attack planned in France

French interior minister Christophe Castaner said an individual 'inspired by the events of September 11th and the planes which destroyed the World Trade Center towers' had recently been arrested by intelligence services for planning a similar attack in France.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

To support Mediapart subscribe

France’s interior minister has said that intelligence services had arrested a man for planning an attack inspired by plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001, reports Reuters.

France has for several years grappled with how to respond to both homegrown jihadists and foreign militants following a series of attacks across the country. French officials say the threat of attacks remains very high.

On October 3rd, an IT specialist with suspected Islamist sympathies, who had a security clearance, killed three officers and one civilian employee before he was shot dead by another police officer.

“Just before [that attack] there was a 60th attempted attack since 2013,” Christophe Castaner told France 2 television on Thursday.

“An individual, who was inspired by the events of September 11th and the planes which destroyed the World Trade Center towers, was arrested by our intelligence services.”

Read more of this report from Reuters.