Two more suspects in French probe into failed church attack

June 11, 2015 8:32 PM

Aged 35 and 39, the two men were arrested in the Paris region on Sunday morning and were placed under precautionary custody, the source said.

Two more suspects in French probe into failed church attack

French magistrates placed two men under formal investigation on Thursday on suspicion they may have been accomplices of an Algerian man suspected of planning to attack at least one French church, a judicial source said.

Aged 35 and 39, the two men were arrested in the Paris region on Sunday morning and were placed under precautionary custody, the source said.

French magistrates have already placed the 24-year-old Algerian, who is suspected of murdering a woman and planning a gun attack on churchgoers in the Paris suburb of Villejuif, under formal investigation in April.

The Paris chief prosecutor said earlier this year a search of the Algerian man's phones and laptops showed he had been in touch with another person, possibly in Syria, who had asked him to target a church.

He is also suspected of killing a 32-year-old female motorist.

France remains on high alert six months after Islamists killed 17 people in attacks on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which had mocked Islam and other religions, and on a Jewish food store.