French police have arrested a man for planning an imminent armed attack on one or two churches, the interior minister said on Wednesday.
The man, a 24-year-old information technology student, was arrested on Sunday in southeast Paris. A car was also seized along with handguns, a kalachnikov and a bulletproof vest, minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
Later at his house, the police found three kalachnikovs and four bulletproof vests.
An Interior Ministry source said the man, also suspected of being involved in the murder of a 32-year-old woman found dead in her car on Sunday, was an Algerian national.
“Detailed documents that were also found established beyond doubt that the individual was planning an imminent attack, probably on one or two churches”
He was arrested after calling emergency services to treat a wound, the interior ministry source said. When they arrived, they saw the injury was a gunshot wound and notified police. A blood trail led to a car which contained the weapons.
Police suspect the 24-year-old accidentally shot himself, the source said.
Cazeneuve said he had previously come to the attention of the French authorities as possibly wanting to go to Syria.
Police had made checks on him in 2014 and 2015 without finding anything that would warrant further investigation.
