Teenager of Chechen origin arrested for planned Jihadist attack in France

A teenager of Chechen origin was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention last week for a planned terrorist attack in France and yesterday (Tuesday), the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office confirmed the opening of a judicial investigation for "terrorist criminal association with a view to committing crimes against persons".

The defendant "has been indicted on this charge and placed in pre-trial detention," the Prosecuter's Office added, refusing to provide more details on the motivations for this planned attack, nor on its progress at the time of the arrest.

Last Thursday, the French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau had evoked a foiled attack that "a very dangerous individual was about to carry out."

Authorities in France regularly warn of the increase in the number of minors implicated in cases of radical Islamist terrorism. It is "a phenomenon (...) relatively new" and in "very sharp increase", said the anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen in mid-July.

* Cnews contributed to this article