Police operation finds explosives near Paris.
French police have discovered a second cache of explosive materials near Paris, following a similar discovery in a suburb outside the capital the previous day, while three suspects were being questioned by counter-terrorism investigators; materials used to manufacture TATP, an explosive commonly used by suicide bombers, were found in the apartment after a plumber called the police to report suspicious activity at the location.
Reuters French police on Thursday found a second cache of explosive materials near Paris, following a similar discovery in a suburb outside the capital the previous day, a justice official said, while three suspects were being questioned by counter-terrorism investigators.
Thursday's raid took place in a garage rented from one of the three people arrested following Wednesday's operation in an apartment in Villejuif, located on the southern edge of the French capital, the source said.
Materials used to manufacture TATP, an explosive commonly used by suicide bombers, were found in the apartment after a plumber called the police to report suspicious activity at the location, said French Interior Minister Gérard Collomb.
Two people in their 30s and 40s were arrested shortly after Wednesday's raid, Collomb said. According to him, the suspects are being questioned for alleged terrorist activity, although they mention a bank robbery. A third man was arrested between Wednesday and Thursday, according to a source.
"Those under investigation said they wanted to blow up a bank with the TATP, but we believe they have links to terrorism, and that is the direction the investigation is taking," Collomb told public radio franceinfo.
This line of inquiry was motivated by information obtained from telephone communications after the operation, he added.
The minister spoke before the later developments, when police found explosive materials in a garage in Thiais, southeast of Paris.
More than 230 people have been killed by Islamist-inspired attackers in the last three years in France, which, like the United States and other countries, is bombing Islamic State bases in Iraq and Syria.
TATP, an unstable explosive, has been used by militants in several attacks in Western Europe in recent years, such as the Manchester attack in May, the Brussels attack in 2016, and the Paris attack in 2015.