Jane Onyanga-Omara
Authorities in France say they arrested seven people Sunday and foiled a terror attack that had been “envisaged for some time.”
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday that six of those detained were not known to intelligence services. He said the arrests prevented “a terrorist act that had been envisaged for a long time,” the Associated Press reported.
Cazeneuve said the seven were of French, Moroccan and Afghan origin and were between 29 and 37 years old.
He said two of the suspects were arrested in the southern city of Marseille and most of the others were detained in the northeastern city of Strasbourg, where a famed Christmas market that attracts tourists from across Europe is set to open this week.
Cazeneuve did not name the target of the planned attack. Reuters reported that it was not Strasbourg, whose Christmas market was the target of a failed bomb plot by extremists on New Year’s Eve in 2000.
“An attack has been foiled … The scale of the terrorist threat is enormous and it is not possible to ensure zero risk despite everything we are doing,” Cazeneuve said, according to Reuters.
He said 43 people were arrested by anti-terror police in November following deadly terror attacks in France by the Islamic State over the past two years.
