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POLICE ARRESTED TWO men in Marseille today on suspicion of planning an attack, just days before the first round of France’s presidential election, with bomb-making materials and guns found in searches.
The foiled plot sparked fears that the closing days of the campaign could be a target for extremists ahead of Sunday’s vote, the country’s most unpredictable election in decades.
A prosecutor told AFP that 3kg of explosives, guns and an IS flag were found during their search.
Elite police and agents from France’s domestic intelligence agency detained the two Frenchmen – identified only as 23-year-old Clement B. and Mahiedine M., 29 – in the Mediterranean port city and Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said they were known to be “radicalised”.
“They were aiming to commit in the very short-term, in other words in the next few days, an attack on French soil,” Fekl said.
Police found guns and bomb-making materials in searches across Marseille. Later in the day, soldiers and police were still sealing off a road where one of the men was arrested.
Officials gave no indication of who the men had been targeting, but the campaign team of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen linked the arrests to her planned campaign visit to the city tomorrow.
“The fact that the two individuals were arrested in Marseille as Marine Le Pen was preparing to hold a meeting the following day is perhaps not a coincidence,” a member of her entourage said.
Photos of the two suspects in the plot were distributed last week to the security teams for Le Pen and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.
Conservative candidate Francois Fillon was also warned about the danger last week, an aide said.
France remains under a state of emergency after being a frequent target of terror attacks by jihadists that have killed more than 230 people since January 2015.
In the deadliest attack, Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers slaughtered 130 people in Paris in November 2015.
Candidates have been heavily guarded during the election campaign, but so far there have been few security scares.
Election race narrowing
On the campaign trail, the race was narrowing ahead of Sunday’s vote, with the pack closing behind frontrunners Macron and Le Pen.
For weeks, centrist former banker Macron and National Front (FN) leader Le Pen have been out in front but opinion polls now show any of the four leading candidates could reach the second-round run-off on 7 May.
Scandal-plagued Fillon and far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon have closed the gap dramatically in the last two weeks.
“We have never seen a four-way contest like this in the first round of a presidential election,” Frederic Dabi of the Ifop polling institute told AFP.
“There has been a real tightening of the race with four candidates between 19% and 23%.”
Macron and Le Pen are tied on 22-23%, with Fillon improving to around 21% and Melenchon surging as high as 20% in some polls.
With Le Pen expected to reach the second round, polls continue to indicate that whoever faces her will win, although after Brexit and Donald Trump’s US presidential election win, no one is taking anything for granted.
Melenchon has made the most remarkable breakthrough in recent weeks with a far-left programme that includes huge public spending and a pledge to renegotiate all European Union treaties.
If they’re willing to use violence before they get to port, what’ll they be up to when they get settled. Send them straight back.
@Patrick Agnew: to be raped?
@Patrick Agnew: Whatever happens, don’t consider why someone might risk highjack a ship to avoid being sent back to where they had fled from… That sort of humane thinking hasn’t been a feature on thejournal.ie comment section since red thumbs were removed and toxic hate took over this site.
@Lisa Jones: what!
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: believe it or not, not everyone has the same opinion as you. So I’ll continue to write comments whether you like them or not. Also, returning someone with a history of using violence to their country of origin is a valid point of discussion and is certainly not toxic.
@Lisa Jones: ?????
@Lisa Jones: Lisa, you seem to be ignoring the fact that they hijacked a ship.
@Lisa Jones: huh??
@Patrick Agnew: I can’t even imagine how desperate you’d have to be to hijack a ship, luckily I’m privileged enough that I’ll probably never know. I doubt many will agree with me but I genuinely just see this as a cry for help.
@Lisa Jones: are you saying that they are likely to be raped in Africa? That sounds kinda racist!
@Lisa Jones: says who ?
@Patrick Agnew: there was no violence mentioned nevernind anything about the history/background of the migrants. It won’t do their cases any good and I’d certainly have reservations on them but I can understand how a situation like this arises when they are fleeing desperate conditions. If I was being persecuted for my religion etc or simply am dirt poor with no employment prospects, I wouldn’t want to be brought back to a lawless country to be persecuted some more.
@Damian Kelly: The United Nations, it’s in the article above, should have gone to Specsavers.
@Jen McCartney: I see where you’re coming from Jen but it’s only going to inspire copycat hijackings and discourage other ships from picking up migrants.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: they must have used violence or threatened it to seize control of the ship. There was also no mention of their country of origin. So it’s not correct to assume they’re fleeing from a war torn country.
@Patrick Agnew: Don’t worry about it Patrick, stay hiding under your bed and the bad men won’t find you in your safe space.
@Orla Smith: can I have a few of those pills Orla?
@Sean Murphy: Maybe do some research on that. 40% of women will be raped based on current stats. Is it racist if it’s true? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_South_Africa
@Patrick Agnew: As it isn’t right to assume that all of the migrants on the ship used violence or have a history of violence as you assumed. I would assume that they used intimidation as a means of taking control of the ship. If they used violence it would have been mentioned. If you read what I said in full then You’d see that I also said that they are fleeing from poverty too so there’s your balance. As well as the persecution they face in lawless Libya.
@Lisa Jones: Their country is what they made it.Do you suggest letting all of them in?
@Lisa Jones: Have you taken your tablets, Lisa?
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: how else would they have hijacked the ship? I’d say it’s fairly certain that they used violence.
@Lisa Jones: they didn’t commandeer a ship without menaces, so frankly they’re no better. Straight back.
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: just because you have a different opinion doesn’t make others’ one hateful : grow up.
@Martin Lodewyks:
Similar stats to Sweden by the looks of it.
@Martin Lodewyks: I read that. Despicable.
This has to be fake news, I don’t believe it. I was told by Sinn Fein and Pb4P that all asylum seekers were cuddly teddy bears and future doctors and engineers. The Journal.ie are peddling far right conspiracy theories!
Not Europe’s problem. Deport
* Italys far right interior minister * so says associated press.
@Derek Durkin: ‘Economic migrants who illegally paid smugglers to bring them to Europe who then hijacked by force a boat that saved them from drowning can not come to our country.’ Wow easy up there Adolf, that’s far right.
@Derek Durkin: Associated Press and Reuters, which are the go to for copy and paste journalism for all the press around the world, were purchased by banking dynasties in the late 18th and 19th century, as reported by independent media at the time.
@Derek Durkin: So says Breitbart, Fake News, amiright? https://www.breitbart.com/news/italys-far-right-salvini-calls-for-populist-european-spring/
@Orla Smith: breitbart ain’t no different from the rest…..all playing divisive identity politics.
Get Tom Hanks. He’ll sort this out
(((Cultural diversity)))
They’re still calling them migrants!
“I am the captain now”
Sometimes I think you have to admire the resourcefulness of some people
@Papa Benzo: i agree. The Captain was going beyond his call of duty buy rescuing these migrants and bringing them back to the nearest port. Clearly the migrants used force and made them change course. This type of behaviour won’t do any favours for future economic migrants who expect to be picked up by privately owned ships passing by.
@Doubtchya Boy!: The captain did not go beyond the call of duty, marine law makes rescue of stricken vessels obligatory. If he had refused aid and they drowned he would be prosecuted.
@Papa Benzo: this particular group should be dragged back to Tripoli , letting them succeed sets a very dangerous precedent. If it becomes an MO, Eventually all distress calls out there would be ignored, for crew safety. That’s not good for anyone, especially future migrants.
@Brendan Hughes: the obligation only applies where there is no risk to your own crew. You won’t find a cargo vessel captain getting charged for ignoring a distress call in Somali waters, for obvious reasons.
@Brendan Hughes: not after today they won’t. They can rightly claim the defence of not putting his crew and ship in peril.
So, to thwart the hijackers who wanted to be taken to Malta, the ship was stormed by special forces and – brought to Malta?
The US, UK and France – take a bow, look at the basket case you have made of Libya, rape, warlords fighting for control of the resources and open slave markets.
Those 3 countries should be made take EVERY refugee fleeing from it
@Pixie McMullen: Nothing America is better at than going to a country far away, taking a dump, stealing their sh_it and f_cking off again. They should’ve taken the 3 million Syrians not Germany.
And yet they’ll STILL be allowed – UNREAL
“The European Union announced yesterday that it will suspend ship patrols that have rescued ten of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean and brought them back to Italy” Finally the EU, mainly Germany, Sweden and Italy have realised that allowing a never ending flow of economic migrants from Africa into Europe will have a devastating effect in diluting European Culture, never mind the violence that comes with them too!
Don’t you just love all the pontificators on here. Thinking they have the vaguest idea what it’s like to be desperate enough for help that they are willing to hijack a vessel. Nobody is actually justifying the behaviour. But all behaviour has meaning, maybe try advancing your understanding of the human condition and the fact that in desperate situations people make desperate choices.
@LD: sounds like you’re quite the pontificate yourself. Hypocrisy much ?
@LD: You’re an absolute knob
@John Moylan: I wouldn’t personally describe calling for an expression of humanity to be pontificating but everyone to their own.
Interesting URL. https://www.thejournal.ie/malta-shit-valetta-4564726-Mar2019/
The Journal’s URL for this story is apt from the migrants point of view.
The Journal’s URL for this story is apt.
thejournal.ie/malta-shit-valetta-4564726-Mar2019/
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