France opens terror probe after guns found in car near Paris

The French flag flies halfmast Monday, Dec. 23, 2024 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

French anti-terrorist prosecutors on Sunday opened an investigation after weapons were found in a car parked in a Paris suburb that is home to a large Jewish population.

Three hundred people were evacuated on Saturday evening from a neighbourhood in Sarcelles, north of Paris, following reports of a suspicious vehicle, which was found to contain “a military-grade weapon”, according to the interior minister.

An investigation has been launched “on charges of forming a terrorist criminal organization with a view to preparing crimes involving attacks on persons and the transport, possession and acquisition of weapons in connection with a terrorist enterprise,” the prosecutors said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on BFMTV that the vehicle was found near one of the town’s several synagogues.

“We do not yet know the motives,” Nunez said, adding that “the individuals have not yet been identified.”

A security cordon had been set up on Saturday evening around the car, which was parked in a busy neighbourhood near a cinema and restaurants that were evacuated in the early evening.

Bomb disposal experts found no explosives, but according to a police source, the stolen car contained an assault-style rifle and a handgun.

Nunez stated that three attacks had been foiled since the start of the year, including a knife attack last February on a gendarme beneath the Arc de Triomphe during the ceremony to rekindle the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

By Sylvie Maligorne, Deborah Claude et Antoine Boyer