20 terror attacks thwarted in France in 2017: Minister

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA)- France has prevented 20 terror attacks in France within the past year, the country's interior minister said Monday.

"Twenty attacks have been foiled in France in 2017. We must be vigilant everywhere.There is no territory, today, where we can say that the risk is non-existent," Gerard Collomb told daily newspaper Le Progres.

A previous number of the thwarted attacks the government announced early in November when the country ended its state of emergency was 13.

France remains on high alert since the 2015 attacks and has been the target of several other deadly terror assaults during the last two years, despite a state of emergency which was extended several times and put to an end on Nov. 1, 2017.