(AFP) — Police have arrested two more people over an apparent bid to explode a homemade device outside the Paris branch of the Bank of America, the French domestic security service said on Sunday.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Saturday he thought the war in the Middle East might have motivated the attempted attack.
Police detained a first suspect, possibly a minor, in the early hours of Saturday just after he placed a device outside the bank building, near the Champs-Elysees.
The suspect was accompanied by a second person, who appeared to be taking photos and videos with a mobile phone but who fled when police arrived.
The device contained five litres of liquid believed to be fuel and an ignition system, a source close to the investigation said.
The two further arrests were made on Saturday night.
According to a police source, the first suspect said he had been recruited through the Snapchat app to carry out a bombing in exchange for 600 euros ($692).
Nunez said he did not know who was behind the incident but speculated that it might have been “proxies” linked to Iran.
Police said the suspect arrested early Saturday outside the bank had told them he was a minor and from Senegal. They were working to verify his identity.
The incident came after more than a month of US and Israeli bombardment of Iran and as talks between key regional players began late Sunday.
The war has escalated into a regional conflagration, with Iran retaliating by attacks on Gulf states, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening the world economy.
The French government and security services have said that while they do not believe France itself is a target, US and Israeli interests on its soil might potentially be singled out.
Nunez urged the security forces to be “extra-vigilant” and increase their presence in railway stations and other crowded places.
France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office told AFP on Saturday it had launched a probe into “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous means”.
Both the Paris judicial police and France’s domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), were involved in the probe, the office told AFP.
The Bank of America, whose global headquarters are in North Carolina, is a multinational investment bank and financial services holding company.
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