Police narrowly foiled a suspected terrorist attack in Paris early Saturday morning, amid ongoing security concerns across Europe.
At around 3:25 AM, police officers from the anti-crime brigade intervened outside the Bank of America headquarters in the 8th arrondissement.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez linked the attempted attack to the broader geopolitical context, particularly tensions in the Middle East.
The police caught a young man as he attempted to ignite a homemade explosive device using a lighter.
The explosive consisted of a five-litre transparent container filled with liquid, combined with a firecracker containing around 650 grams of explosive powder.
Police arrested three suspects. The main suspect, a Senegalese minor already known to police for drug-related offences, was detained at the scene.
An accomplice who fled—reportedly tasked with filming the explosion—was arrested 24 hours later in Essonne, a suburb south of Paris, together with a third suspect.
According to investigators, the main suspect said he had been recruited via Snapchat and was promised €600 for carrying out the attack.
He was reportedly dropped off near the bank by car.
The case reflects a growing trend of using “proxies,” often minors or petty criminals recruited on social media for relatively small amounts of money.
These individuals usually have little knowledge of who is behind the operation, making it difficult for authorities to identify those ultimately responsible.
Nunez noted similarities with recent incidents in Europe attributed to networks close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, suggesting the use of indirect methods to avoid clear attribution.
The incident comes amid a series of recent attacks across Europe targeting Jewish and American interests, including in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, after strikes on Iran by the US and Israeli beginning in late February.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation, for attempted destruction in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
The case is being handled by France’s domestic security service, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (DGSI), and the anti-terrorist section of the Paris police.
Meanwhile, authorities have raised France’s level of alert, reinforcing security especially around sensitive sites linked to the Jewish, Israeli, and American communities.
