A man suspected of having placed this Friday, April 8 in the morning an improvised explosive device in the Saint-Étienne cathedral in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) was arrested a few hours after the fact and placed in police custody. While his hearing continued in the afternoon, the terrorist track was not privileged.
According to information from CNEWS, the suspect had placed two packages: one with soda, aluminum and an electric wire without a firing box, the other empty.
The 46-year-old man is known to the police for driving while intoxicated, contempt of an officer, narcotics and had been “implicated in other cases and twice declared criminally irresponsible”, a for his part, the public prosecutor of Toulouse Samuel Vuelta Simon informed.
Already involved in a suspicious package case
According to a source familiar with the matter at Agence France-Presse, the suspect was also involved, on March 23, in a suspicious package story in a Toulouse metro station.
Saint-Étienne cathedral in Toulouse had to be evacuated during mass around 8:30 a.m. when, a few moments earlier, a man wearing a cap, taken for a delivery man by the sacristan (the person in charge of preparing religious services, Editor’s note), had crossed the nave to place a package at the foot of the altar.
Police operation in downtown Toulouse.
We will keep you informed.
Please avoid the area.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) April 8, 2022
As he ran away, he bumped into the sexton who was trying to hold him back. The religious asked the faithful to evacuate the cathedral, which adjoins the prefecture, before alerting the police.
Described as “unbalanced”, the man had been searched for several hours before being located in Balma, a residential suburb of Toulouse. Arrested, he was taken to the Gérard Marchant psychiatric hospital in Toulouse to assess his mental state and to be heard there.
“Thanks to the mobilization of the national, municipal and Tisséo police (public transport company of the Toulouse conurbation, editor’s note), the suspect was arrested without a victim to be deplored. Video protection takes on its full meaning and proves its effectiveness”, welcomed the mayor of Toulouse Jean-Luc Moudenc on Twitter.