France arrests 2 suspects for plotting terror attack

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - Two French men were arrested in Marseille on Tuesday morning for allegedly planning a terror attack in France just a few days before presidential elections, Interior Minister Matthias Fekl announced on Tuesday.

"This morning between 10 and 11 a.m., the police of the DGSI [French intelligence agency] proceeded with the support of the RAID [elite police] to arrest in the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille two men suspected of a certain and imminent terrorist act," Fekl told a press conference in Paris.

Fekl said the two suspects, aged 23 and 29, were of French nationality. The men had been "radicalized" and were known to the French intelligence services, he added.

They allegedly intended to commit an attack “on French soil in the very near future, that is to say in the next few days," he said.

The Paris Prosecutor's Office has launched a probe while Chief Prosecutor Francois Molins will soon present more details on the arrests, Fekl added.

The two-round presidential election is set to take place in the country on April 23 and May 7.

Fekl had earlier said that 50,000 officers will be mobilized across the country's 67,000 polling stations.

France has been on high alert in the wake of several terror attacks in recent years.