Islamic extremists arrested for plot to kill kindergarten children

Two 20-year-old Islamic extremists have been arrested by police in Paris after allegedly plotting to massacre a nursery school full of children and then responding police officers. The arrest occurred on March 25th and according to the Paris Prosecutor, they were indicted for planning to attack a nursery school and police officer yesterday.

The man, who investigators consider the mastermind of the plot, admitted after his arrest that he wanted to enter the kindergarten, attack the children, and then take some hostage until police arrived, at which point he would attempt to kill the police officers.

Arrested at his home in Seine-et-Marne, the young man mentioned Mohamed Merah, considered the author of the Toulouse and Montauban killings in 2012 as his mentor. According to a source close to the investigation, he presented “a very strong psychiatric instability ” and a “suicidal tendency” that could have pushed him to act.

The General Directorate of Homeland Security (DGSI) had been observing the man since 2015 after he had become increasingly close to the radical jihadist movement.

Police decided to arrest him shortly after he made it known he was looking to procure weapons and adding that his plot had not reached a concrete planning stage at the time of his arrest. The second man, one of his friends, is suspected of complicity.

The arrest is just the latest terror plot to be foiled in France. Last October, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that authorities had managed to thwart five major terror attacks in 2018 alone.