French authorities have foiled a suspected terror attack on the Bank of America’s Paris headquarters.
Sources close to the case said a 17-year-old boy was seized shortly after allegedly trying to light a homemade explosive device in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The boy was about to ignite the device with a lighter when he was seized by police, a source told AFP.
A second suspect is still at large after fleeing when officers attempted to arrest the pair.
While motives behind the incident remain unclear, it comes amid heightened security concerns as the conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate.
Earlier this week, a group with links to Iran’s network of proxies promoted the Bank of America’s Paris headquarters as a “target”, The Telegraph learned.
While they have not been formally linked to the attempted Paris attack, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya posted a video of the French bank on its Telegram channel, claiming it was “not just a bank, but a shadowy Zionist force”.
The group rose to prominence in the wake of an anti-Semitic firebomb attack in London for which they appeared to claim responsibility.
Counter-terror police are now investigating the incident which saw four ambulances set on fire outside a synagogue in Golders Green.
In the video, which was published on a now-removed Telegraph channel, the group published a lengthy rationale for targeting the Paris headquarters of the Bank of America.
The video, seen by The Telegraph, claimed it is an “institution serving Zionist and Israeli interests”, adding that it has a “deep connection to the Jewish community in France”.
The group claimed that the Bank of America “constantly works to strengthen Israel’s ties with Europe and solidify the cultural and economic connections between France and Tel Aviv”.
Police in Europe have been on high alert for potential attacks on Iranian dissidents, Jewish places of worship and locations linked to US or Israeli interests.
Earlier this month, Emmanuel Macron asked his government to strengthen Operation Sentinelle, the ongoing military operation that followed the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks, to protect France from terror attacks.
According to one French police source, the teenage suspect said he had been recruited via social media to carry out the bombing in exchange for €600 (£523).
Police also seized a device made of five litres (1.3 gallons) of liquid, believed to be fuel, and an ignition system, one source said.
Le Parisien reported that the man had no ID on him at the time of his arrest, but claimed to be Senegalese.
Welcoming the arrest, Laurent Nunez, the interior minister, wrote on X: “Well done to the swift intervention of a police prefecture crew which thwarted a violent terrorist attack last night in Paris.”
“Vigilance remains at a very high level. I commend all the security and intelligence forces fully mobilised under my authority in the current international context,” he added.
The incident took place a couple of streets away from the Avenue des Champs-Élysées at around 3.30am.
An initial assessment of the ignition component of the device found it had 650g (23oz) of explosive powder in it, according to an initial assessment. It has since been taken to a police forensics lab for full analysis.
France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office confirmed it had immediately taken over the investigation and that the suspect is now in police custody.
A spokesperson added that it had launched an investigation into “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous means in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and a “terrorist criminal conspiracy”.
Both Paris’s judicial police and France’s domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) are understood to be involved in the probe.
A spokesperson for Bank of America, whose US headquarters is in Charlotte, North Carolina, said that they were aware of the situation and were in communication with the French authorities.
Iran’s terrorist proxy
Until recently, few people had heard of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya , whose name translates as “Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right”.
Earlier this month, Israeli officials who work to tackle anti-Semitism around the world started to notice the potential threat posed by the group.
Over the course of six days, the ministry for diaspora affairs identified connections between separate attacks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece.
In a special report the ministry charted the rise of what is Iran’s latest terrorist proxy in Europe.
Despite efforts to hide affiliation, there are some signs that the group is part of Iran’s proxy network, known as the “Axis of Resistance”.
