Counter-terror police in France have foiled two Islamist attacks including one targeting homosexuals and a bomb plot aimed at a club for swingers, local media reports.
In raids conducted in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris at the weekend, police discovered “knives, a detonation system and jihadist propaganda” in the possession of two men who were charged on suspicion of planning to carry out an Islamic State-inspired attack.
The individuals, said to be friends in their early 20s who were previously unknown to security services, came to the attention of General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) intelligence officers a few weeks ago, a source close to the investigation said.
Describing the pair as “very determined” to commit acts of terror, the source told French newspaper L’Express that the men had on a number of occasions exchanged messages which spoke of a project to carry out an attack.
“Their plan was still ill-defined at this stage, but there were elements to suggest they planned to attack homosexuals,” one source added.
Hours after officers confirmed the two men had been charged by an anti-terror judge, and then detained, police announced that they had thwarted the fifth Islamic extremist attack in France so far in 2018, this one targeting a swingers’ club.
The suspect, a 38-year-old convert to Islam who “had become radicalised” was arrested in the Indre region of central France after “an improvised explosive device was found at his home and the man admitted that he wanted to use it to target a swingers’ club”, a source told AFP.
Charged with “preparing to commit an act of terrorism” and “associating with terrorist criminals”, the native to France’s Loiret region was taken into custody on May 17, according to a judicial source.
The accused is also being prosecuted for “fraud in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “fraudulent obtaining of administrative documents in connection with a terrorist enterprise”, French media reports.
The news came just weeks after the country suffered its latest deadly terror attack, in which Chechen immigrant Khamzat Azimov lunged at strangers with a knife while shouting “Allahu akhbar”.
Despite repeated insistence by left-wing Western leaders — usually after calls from opposition politicians in the wake of a terror attack urging the government to crack down on mass migration from the third world — that Islamic extremism must not be allowed to “change our way of life”, authorities in France announced a ban on public screenings of World Cup 2018 matches as a result of the ongoing security threat in the nation.
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