'We've foiled 5 terror attacks in the recent months' - Prime Minister reveals

onnaedo

April 23, 2015 11:33 AM

He said 1,573 French citizens or residents had been implicated in "terror networks" with 442 of those believed to currently be in Syria.

___3690936___https:______static.pulse.com.gh___webservice___escenic___binary___3690936___2015___4___23___12____82506721_82506716

French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls has revealed that French police have foiled 5 attempted terror attacks in recent months, the latest being the foil of an attack on a church in Villejuif outside Paris after police arrested the mastermind.

Speaking with France Inter radio, Valls said "the threat has never been so high, we have never had to face this kind of terrorism in our history."

He said 1,573 French citizens or residents had been implicated in "terror networks" with 442 of those believed to currently be in Syria.

He further said that 97 of those had died in Syria or Iraq, including 7 while carrying out suicide attacks.

Since the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine office and a Jewish supermarket in January which left 17 people dead, France has stepped up security.

Earlier in the week, a 24-year-old Algerian man was arrested on suspicion of planning to attack "one or two churches" in Villejuif. The arrest came after he called an ambulance after he accidentally shot himself.

The suspect, Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer science student was known to security services as having expressed a wish to travel to Syria to fight with Islamist militants, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Prosecutors report that when police arrived at the scene, they found an arsenal of live weapons in his car and home, and documents detailing plans to attack a church.

Also, prosecutors have linked Ghlam to the murder of a 32-year-old woman, Aurelie Chatelain, who was found dead in her car in Villejuif on Sunday after traces of her blood were found on one of Ghlam's jackets.

onnaedo