‘Advanced’ terror plot foiled near Paris

PARIS

A man suspected of preparing a plot attack, which was in its “advanced stages”, in France has been arrested near Paris on Thursday as part of a large-scale counter-terrorism operation.

Police found explosives at the man's home in the northwestern suburb of Argenteuil Thursday evening, said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

“These searches follow an arrest by the [French intelligence agency] on Thursday morning that allowed us to stop a planned bombing in France that was at an advanced stage,” he said late Thursday.

The individual was sentenced in absentia in 2015 in Belgium in a case regarding the passage of militants into Syria, according to French media. He was arrested in the Boulogne-Billancourt suburb of Paris.

“This arrest is the result of a careful investigation that began several weeks ago, and which mobilized important human and technical surveillance resources, as well as close and ongoing cooperation with European intelligence agencies," said the interior minister.

“The individual questioned, a French national, is suspected of high-level involvement in this plan. He was part of a terrorist network that planned to strike France,” Cazeneuve added.

However, the minister said : “At this stage, there is no tangible evidence that links this plot to the attacks in Paris and Brussels.”

The arrest comes after suicide bomb attacks at an airport and in a subway station in Brussels, which killed 31 people.

France is on high alert since Paris terror attacks on Nov.13, in which 130 people lost their lives.