Extreme vigilance in matters of terrorism is required during the end-of-year holidays due to “the very high level of the terrorist threat which continues to weigh”. It was after this reminder from the Minister of the Interior that the arrest of five people in Meurthe-et-Moselle was announced on Friday. They were placed in police custody by the intelligence services as part of an investigation opened for criminal terrorist association, indicated the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), confirming information from The Republican East.
A source close to the case confirmed to AFP their placement in police custody, without further details at this stage on the suspicions hanging over them. According to this source, the arrests took place Friday morning in Nancy, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy and Toul. The investigation is being carried out by the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat) of the judicial police.
Attack emergency level
Since October 13, France has activated the emergency attack level of the Vigipirate system, the highest, following the murder of Dominique Bernard, a French teacher in a high school in Arras, stabbed by a radicalized former student.
The activation of the attack emergency level also occurred in an international context marked by the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by a bloody and unprecedented attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from Gaza.