Police in southern France have arrested four women and a girl in an anti-terrorist investigation into a suspected plot to attack Montpellier
PARIS – Police in southern France have arrested four women and a girl as part of an anti-terrorist investigation into a suspicious plot to attack the city of Montpellier.
A Herault police officer confirmed the overnight arrests in Beziers and said on Sunday that the DGSI’s internal intelligence service and the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office were investigating.
Investigators focused on an 18-year-old woman who lived in a housing project in Beziers, who is suspected of planning an attack targeting nearby Montpellier, according to Mayor Robert Menard. The mother of the 18-year-old and the three sisters were also arrested, including one who is a minor, he said.
The 18-year-old “boasted” to her neighbors about watching Islamic State videos, Menard told The Associated Press, although she said she did not know if she or her family had been on the radar of radicalism.
Menard, who was alerted by police to the operation, said he had spoken to shaken neighbors at the scene.
“They are terrified. They are afraid that it will give a bad image of this neighborhood and of the Muslim community here, ”he said.