French terror suspect in plot to kill English

A RADICALISED convert to Islam has been arrested in France for allegedly planning to attack ‘English and American tourists’, it was claimed last night.

The 22-year-old was arrested on Monday night carrying ‘a knife and small mallet’ intending to carry out ‘a violent act’, a judicial source said.

The suspect comes from the southern French town of Lunel – notorious for the number of residents who have left to wage jihad in Syria – but had been living in the nearby Tarn region.

It is believed he had been planning to attack security forces, as well as tourists.

He was arrested at the railway station of Carcassonne, a medieval fortified town an hour’s drive from Toulouse, where four matches of the Euro 2016 football tournament are taking place.

The unnamed suspect was on a security ‘S’ watchlist for potentially dangerous individuals, including would-be jihadists, according to La Dépêche du Midi, the local newspaper. It reported that he ‘confessed to investigators he wanted to attack English and American tourists, before launching an attack on security forces – police and military’.

The man also said he intended to target Russians, according to the daily newspaper Le Parisien.

France has been under a state of emergency since IS terrorists struck Paris in November, killing 130.

Terror fears have been heightened by the presence of hundreds of thousands of international fans for the month-long Euro 2016 football championship.