PARIS
Security forces in France have foiled attacks on a military installation with the arrests of four people allegedly linked to militant groups, President Francois Hollande said Wednesday.
"This week, we stopped terrorist attacks which could have taken place," Hollande said on a visit to the southern coastal city of Marseille.
In a statement, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said four suspects aged between 16 and 23 were arrested around France on Monday, the day before France’s Bastille Day public holiday. One was a former member of the navy.
Reports in France said those arrested had planned to film the beheading of a member of the military.
One of the suspects -- identified as the ringleader -- had been planning to travel to Syria and was in contact with known French terror convicts currently in prison, Cazeneuve added.
The minister said no link had been established between the planned attacks and two explosions at a petrochemical plant near Marseille on Tuesday.
He added that security forces have now identified around 1,850 people from France who are involved with militant networks. Of those, about 500 are currently fighting in Syria and Iraq. Cazeneuve said France had issued 118 orders to stop people leaving the country.
France is on high alert after attacks in January that killed 17 people in the Paris area. Last month a suspected radical beheaded his employer and tried to blow up a U.S.-owned industrial gas plant in Lyon.
