French authorities in the city of Strasbourg arrested seven radicalised people and have indicted two of them over allegations of preparing to carry out a terrorist attack.
The arrests took place on November 18th but were only publicly revealed on Thursday and saw the seven suspects taken into custody by the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI), France’s domestic security and intelligence agency.
French authorities later released five of the suspects, indicting two, both of which are foreigners from Russia and Tajikistan respectively and who only arrived in France recently, according to a report from the broadcaster France Bleu.
The broadcast notes the arrests came just days before the opening of Strasbourg’s Christmas Market, which attracts as many as two million visitors a year.
BREAKING: Suspected #Strasbourg Gunman Killed in Police Shootout https://t.co/TAXvBzXIDo
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 13, 2018
The city’s Christmas Market has been the scene of a previous terrorist attack in December 2018, when a radical Islamic terrorist gunman named Cherif Chekatt opened fire on those attending the market, murdering five and injuring eleven other bystanders.
Chekatt was later shot dead by police after he fled the scene in a taxi and was located in the Neudorf-Meinau quarter of Strasbourg where the terrorist had been hiding for two days after the attack.
The Strasbourg attack came just two years after the Berlin Christmas Market attack that saw Tunisian Anis Amri steal a large lorry and ram those at the outdoor market, killing twelve people and injuring many others.
In November of last year, French authorities are claimed to have foiled as many as 65 terrorist plots since 2015, with the vast majority of the plots involving radical Islamic extremists. Most of those arrested in connection with failed plots have been French nationals, although at least 34 were from mainly North Africa, Russia and Syria.
The 2021 report also noted that since 2015 a total of 263 people in France have been murdered during terrorist attacks.
Authorities have foiled 65 terrorist plots in France since 2015, according to official figures which also revealed that terrorist attacks have claimed the lives of over 260 people during the same time period. https://t.co/fjxeLLJ6V4
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 22, 2021
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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