France stops a terrorist attack

Anti-terrorism forces have apprehended four people in southern France, thwarting what France’s top security official has called an “imminent attack”.

A makeshift laboratory was uncovered with enough explosive TATP and other ingredients to make a bomb.

Among the arrested people there is a 16-year-old girl, who had pledged loyalty to Islamic State (IS) in a recent video, according to a police official.

The prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism investigations in France, said around 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of TATP were taken from home of a 20-year-old man in Montpellier. A litre of acetone and other materials were also recovered.

TATP can be made from readily available materials, and was used in the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris, as well as the March 2016 attack in Brussels, carried out by IS extremists.

Two other men, a 33-year-old and a 26-year-old, were arrested along with the teenage girl, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The police official said one of the suspects was believed to be planning a suicide attack. However, the investigation had not yet uncovered a specific target.

He said a person in the group, who was known to intelligence services, had tried to reach Syria in 2015 and .

The group – the girl in particular – attracted new attention with their social media postings, he said.

The country’s prime minister praised the work of anti-terror investigators.

“Faced with the heightened threat, there has been an extremely strong mobilisation of our intelligence services to ensure the French are protected to the utmost,” said Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Interior minister Bruno Le Roux said the arrests “thwarted an imminent attack on French soil”.

France is still under a state of emergency after the deadly attacks in 2015 and 2016.