Misfire foils terrorist attack on Paris church

An Islamic extremist with an arsenal of loaded guns was prevented from opening fire on churchgoers only because he accidentally shot himself in the leg, French officials said on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old computer science student, who was also suspected in the death of a young woman whose body was found on Sunday shortly before his arrest, had been flagged as a risk for intent to travel to Syria but there had been no specific reason to open a judicial investigation, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Wednesday.

Paris Prosecutor François Molins said the suspect, an Algerian who had lived in France for several years, was arrested in Paris on Sunday after he apparently shot himself by accident and called for an ambulance.

A search of his apartment in southeastern Paris turned up more weapons including three Kalashnikov assault rifles along with phones and computers that police used to establish that he’d been in communication with someone “who could have been in Syria,” Molins said in a news conference.

This person “explicitly asked him to target a church,” Molins said, declining to answer questions about the investigation into what he termed “an imminent attack”.

The man, who has not been named, admitted he was planning an attack on “one or two churches” in Villejuif, a suburb of Paris, the same day.

Police also found Arabic-language material that mentioned al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the man’s apartment, Molins said. There was no immediate evidence that the suspect had direct ties to any organised groups, said a French security official.