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Six people linked to French far-right movements were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of preparing a "violent" plot against President Emmanuel Macron, AFP sources told AFP.
The five men and one woman, aged between 22 and 62, were seized by the French national intelligence agency DGSI, which did not disclose their identity, said one of the sources.
Four suspects were arrested in the northeastern city of Moselle, a little over an hour from Verdun, a visit Macron made on Tuesday as part of the commemorations. A centennial week of the First World War.
Another was arrested in southeastern France and a sixth in the west.
An investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office, responsible for terrorism investigations throughout the country, focuses on "a vague and ill-defined project at this stage," said one of the sources.
Last Monday, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, warned that France remained "alert" to threats posed by "extremist networks of right and left, very active in our country."
This was not the first known attempt against Macron.
In July 2017, a 23-year-old man was charged with conspiring to assassinate the president during the military parade organized for Bastille Day in France.
The man told investigators that he wanted to kill Macron with "Muslims, Jews, Blacks and Gays", and three kitchen knives were found in his car.
Several other suspected far-right members have been arrested since 2017 – the year of Macron's election to the presidency – after the police had discovered that they could prepare for imminent attacks.
This summer, 13 people with links to the radical Action Forces Group have been arrested by the anti-terrorist police for alleged conspiracy to attack Muslims.
And 10 people were also arrested in October 2017 for suspicion of targeting Muslims as well as politicians such as the far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and Castaner.
In a report submitted by the DGSI as part of this investigation, it indicated that the far right in France consisted of several disparate groups and competitors with a "limited" operational capacity.
French President Emmanuel Macron took office in 2017
