Kill plot thwarted

‘Day of the Jackal’ terror plan to assassinate French president

A FAR-RIGHT terror suspect has been arrested in Paris over a plot to assassinate French President Emmanuel Macron in front of Donald Trump.

The Day of the Jackal-style plot by the 23-year-old Frenchman was foiled when he tried to get hold of a Kalashnikov assault rifle online.

Prosecuting sources said the unnamed man was from the “extreme Right” and wanted to murder Mr Macron, as well as “blacks, Arabs, Jews and homosexuals”. He was charged with terrorism offences last Saturday, with details of the case released yesterday.

The suspect, from Paris, planned to target Mr Macron as he took the salute at the Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.

President Trump will be this year’s guest of honour on France’s national day, which recalls the storming of the Bastille fortress during the French Revolution of 1789.

One of the biggest security operations in the country’s history will unfold on the Champs-Élysees and the Place de la Concorde for the event, which will involve thousands of French and US troops, who will be commemorating the centenary of America’s entry into World War I. It will also fall on the first anniversary of the Nice terror attack in which a jihadi ploughed a truck into a Riviera crowd, killing 86 and injuring 434.

The Champs-Élysees has been the site of two recent attacks. Last month a man drove a car laden with weapons and gas canisters into a police van.

In April, a known extremist shot dead a police officer days before the first round of the presidential election.

France remains on a state of emergency following attacks by Islamic State, including the Paris massacres in November 2015 which killed 130.

The antics of the far-Right terrorist group, made up mainly of army and police officers, were fictionalised in the Frederick Forsyth novel The Day of the Jackal.