Access during anti-terror operations
France implements “extreme vigilance” ahead of holidays
December 22, 2023, 9:27 p.m
The highest of three terror alert levels has been in effect in France since October 13th. Interior Minister Darmanin also calls for maximum vigilance. Five suspects are arrested during an anti-terror operation not far from the German border.
Five people were arrested during an anti-terror operation in eastern France. They were taken into custody as part of a secret service investigation, as the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office announced. It is being investigated for the formation of a criminal terrorist organization. The arrests took place in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.
The investigators confirmed the arrest to AFP, but no further information was given about the allegations against those arrested. Accordingly, the arrests took place on Friday morning around 100 km from the German border in Nancy, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy and Toul.
France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had warned the country’s prefects to exercise “extreme vigilance” during the Christmas holidays and Epiphany as the “terrorist threat” remained very high.
The highest of three alert levels has been in effect in France since October 13th. It was declared after the attack on a teacher in Arras, northern France: a radicalized ex-student killed the teacher Dominique Bernard in front of the school entrance with multiple knife stabs in the shoulder and neck. At the same time, the alert level was activated against the background of the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas.
Members of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas were recently arrested in Berlin for planning attacks. The plans are not said to have been concrete yet. As the federal prosecutor’s office stated, all four defendants are said to have belonged to Hamas for years, to have taken part in the organization’s actions abroad and to have had close contacts with leaders of the military wing.