5 arrested after makeshift bomb found in Paris

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - Five people were arrested, including one known to French intelligence services, after police found a makeshift bomb in Paris over the weekend, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Tuesday.

The Paris prosecutor has opened an anti-terror investigation after the bomb, made of two gas cylinders and a cellphone, was discovered on Saturday in the capital's chic 16th arrondissement on the western edge of the capital.

Collomb told Franceinfo radio on Tuesday that one of the men was on a police terror watch list.

"That shows that the threat level in France is extremely high," the minister said.

Last month, Collomb revealed that 12 planned attacks had been foiled since the beginning of the year.

Collomb added the incident and the recent knife attack in Marseille on Sunday that left two women dead underlined the importance of a controversial new counterterrorism and security law.

The national assembly -- the lower house of parliament -- is set to vote on Tuesday afternoon on the new bill, slammed by several rights groups, as a threat to civil liberties.

France was placed under a state of emergency since the November 2015 terrorist attacks that killed 130 people.

President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to put an end to the state of emergency by Nov. 1 this year.