The suspect will be extradited to France as quickly as possible. (File Photo: Reuters)
Reuters, Amsterdam
Monday, 28 March 2016
Dutch anti-terrorism police on Sunday arrested a 32-year-old man in
Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing an attack on France and also
detained three other people, national prosecutors said.
“French
authorities on Friday requested the arrest of the French citizen, who
had been identified in a terrorism investigation,” prosecutors said in a
statement. He was suspected of “involvement in preparing a terrorist
attack”.
The arrests were carried out by a
specialized anti-terrorism police squad, and the Dutch intelligence
agency AIVD and prosecutors also took part in the operation, prosecutors
said.
Two of the others detained were
described as aged 43 and 47 and “having an Algerian background,” while
the third had not yet been identified.
Police
were searching two addresses in western Rotterdam associated with the
suspect, and people living in nearby buildings had been evacuated as a
precautionary measure, the prosecutors said.
The suspect will be extradited to France as quickly as possible, they said.
The
arrests came with Europe on heightened alert after Tuesday’s suicide
bomb attacks at Brussels Airport and on a rush-hour metro train that
killed 31 people, including three attackers, and injured hundreds more.
ISIS has claimed responsibility.
Late on
Sunday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve congratulated
intelligence services’ work and the cooperation among European countries
that he said helped thwart a potential attack in France.
Cazeneuve
said their work helped result in a first arrest outside of Paris on
Thursday, then another in Brussels on Saturday and a third in the
Netherlands.
“Intelligence services work relentlessly to protect our territory in a context of high threat,” Cazeneuve said in a statement.
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