On Saturday evening, 300 people were evacuated from the Sarcelles district, located north of Paris, after reports of a suspicious vehicle. According to the Minister of the Interior, a “military-grade weapon” was found in the car.
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An investigation was launched “on charges of creating a terrorist criminal organization to commit crimes related to attacks against individuals, as well as the transport, possession, and acquisition of weapons related to terrorist activity,” prosecutors said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told BFMTV that the vehicle was found near one of the several synagogues in the city.
“The motives are not yet known,” Nunez said, adding that the “suspected individuals have not yet been identified.”
On Saturday evening, a security cordon was set up around the car, which was parked in a busy area near a cinema and restaurants, evacuated earlier in the evening.
Bomb disposal experts found no explosives, but according to a police source, a rifle and a pistol were found in the stolen car.
Nunez indicated that since the beginning of the year, three attacks have been prevented, including an attempted knife attack against a gendarme near the Arc de Triomphe in February, during the torch lighting ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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