Frenchmen accused of plotting election attack

  • 18/04/2017
French police generic
France goes to the polls to choose a new president on April 23 (Reuters / file)

Two men have been arrested in Marseille on suspicion of planning an attack during the French presidential elections, judicial and police sources say.

Police, who had been hunting the pair since the end of last week, seized them a few minutes apart in the southeastern port city on Tuesday (local time), the police source said.

The police source said the two men appeared to have turned to radical Islam during a term in prison. A search of a rented apartment was underway.

France goes to the polls to choose a new president on April 23, with a second round of voting due on May 7.

France has been under a state of emergency, which has been extended several times, in the face of Islamist militant attacks in Paris and other parts of the country in which more than 230 people have been killed.

Reuters