A 16-year-old girl is among four people arrested for allegedly planning a new terror attack in France. The teenager was arrested alongside her 20-year-old boyfriend and two other men aged 26 and 33 in Montpellier on Friday morning.
Police sources in Montpellier confirmed that a raid on a council estate in the city was “underway and that four people have been arrested”. “Explosive substances” and computer equipment were seized by the police, who can now hold the suspects for up to four days before leveling charges or releasing them.
A ‘bomb-making laboratory’ was found in the single flat raised in Montpellier, said a source close to the case. Ingredients found included the peroxide-based explosive, triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. Also known as the ‘Mother of Satan’, TATP has been used by terrorist bombers for years and figured prominently in the suicide belts used in the 2015 attacks on Paris.
Isis propaganda magazines have contained instructions on how to make TATP, which is difficult to detect, from legally available and low-cost products. All four suspects were under surveillance by French authorities and were suspected of preparing a “violent action”, while the 20-year-old man is suspected of wanting to commit a suicide bombing.
