Two more people were arrested Saturday night into Sunday as part of the investigation into the foiled attack on the Bank of America headquarters in Paris, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) told AFP.
The detention of the minor arrested on Saturday “has also been extended,” the PNAT said, confirming information published in Le Parisien.
A total of three people are now in custody regarding the case, which French Interior Minister Laurent Nunes has linked to the war in the Middle East.
The events unfolded in the early hours of Saturday morning in front of the Bank of America building located in an expensive district of the French capital. Police arrested a man who had just planted an improvised explosive device.
The man, who was arrested at the scene, was preparing to detonate the device with a lighter. He was accompanied by a second person who fled on foot. According to initial reports, the two men arrived on foot in front of the American Bank. While the first man placed the device, the second man took a step back, apparently to take photos or video with his cell phone.
The explosive device consisted of a 5 litre transparent container of liquid, possibly hydrocarbon, and a detonation mechanism. PNAT immediately took over the case and launched an investigation.
The juvenile arrested on Saturday explained, according to a police source, that he had been recruited through the Snapchat app to carry out this operation for the sum of 600 euros. Nunes spoke last night of “similarities” between the modus operandi of this failed attack and the operations carried out in several European countries claimed by a mysterious group considered close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
