(MENAFN- Gulf Times) French police investigating a suspected bomb factory near Paris believe three arrested men were preparing attacks and had made calls to Syria, a minister said yesterday.
Ingredients to make an explosive known as TATP, commonly used by the Islamic State (IS) group, were discovered in an unoccupied apartment in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif on Wednesday, as well as gas canisters and electrical wiring.
More potential TATP ingredients were found yesterday during a search of an enclosed parking space belonging to the main suspect, the flat's owner, a source close to the case said.
Anti-terror police launched raids following a tip-off from a worker at the building who has been praised for his 'citizen's reflex for reporting suspicious activity.
The Paris daily Le Parisien reported that the workman was a plumber working to fix a recurrent leak.
He was outside the building when he spotted chemicals on a balcony of the flat, then saw a soldering iron and a hot plate through the window, the paper reported, quoting a source close to the probe.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the men in custody two were arrested on Wednesday and a third overnight 'were involved in terrorism.
'We've seen that there were calls exchanged with someone in the war zone in Syria, Collomb said on Franceinfo radio.
The men have denied they were preparing attacks, claiming that they were planning robberies in which the explosives would be used to blow up bank cash machines, Collomb said.
The arrests raised questions about whether the suspects might be linked to a religious extremist cell in Spain which carried out two vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils last month.
Some of the extremists behind the violence in Spain mostly Moroccan nationals who were also preparing bombs made with TATP visited Paris on August 11 and 12, about a week before their deadly rampage.
'It is possible there were links but honestly I don't know, Collomb said.
The Spain attackers stayed in a hotel in the Parisian suburb of Malakoff a short drive from where the suspected bomb factory was discovered on Wednesday in Villejuif.
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