French police detain 5 on suspicion of planning attack
French police have detained five people in the southern part of the country on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack.
The local prosecutor said on Tuesday that the suspects, who were Russians from Chechnya, were arrested on Monday in the town of Beziers near the Mediterranean coast, around 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Montpellie.
Security forces found certain "products" during their searches, the prosecutor added without releasing further details.
The arrests were made as France is on high alert after a recent spate of terrorist attacks earlier in January in the capital Paris.
The attacks began on January 7 when the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo came under assault by two gunmen. Some 12 people were killed in the incident that left France in huge shock and fear.
Two days later, two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, suspected of murdering the journalists, were killed after being cornered at a printing workshop in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele.
On the same day, another gunman named Amedy Coulibaly killed four hostages in a separate terror attack at a Paris supermarket before he was slain by police. In a posthumous video, he claimed that he was acting on behalf of the ISIL Takfiri group in coordination with the two brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo.
The al-Qaeda branch in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack on Charlie Hebdo, saying that it chose and supported the Kouachi brothers.
The terror attacks have drawn widespread condemnations from Muslims in France and the entire world.
MR/HMV/SS
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