Five people were arrested in an anti-terror operation in eastern France on Friday. According to information from investigators, those arrested belong to an Islamist movement.
Emergency services arrested five people during an anti-terror operation in northeastern France. The suspects were caught at three different locations in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department and are now in police custody, French media reported in the evening, citing the authorities.
The arrests were made in connection with investigations into criminal terrorist organizations.
According to information from investigators, those arrested belong to an Islamist movement. Accordingly, the arrests took place on Friday morning in Nancy, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy and Toul.
“Terrorist threat very high”
France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin warned the country’s prefects on Friday to exercise “extreme vigilance” during the Christmas holidays and Epiphany as the “terrorist threat” remains very high.
The highest of three alert levels has been in effect in France since October 13th. It was declared after the attack on a teacher in Arras, northern France: a radicalized ex-student killed the teacher Dominique Bernard in front of the school entrance with multiple knife stabs in the shoulder and neck. At the same time, the alert level was activated against the backdrop of the war between Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas.