 | « Back to article | Print this article |
A rocket launcher and a huge cache of weapons were seized in Lyon.
French police have seized a rocket launcher and a huge cache of weapons in Lyon after they launched a series of coordinated anti-terrorism raids across the country on Monday morning following the deadly attacks in Paris on Friday.
Heavily armed tactical units launched more than 150 pre-dawn raids at addresses in Toulouse, Lyon, Grenoble, Calais and a Paris suburb.
French media reports a rocket launcher, flack jackets, several pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were among the cache of weapons seized in Lyon overnight, with five people arrested.
There have many arrests in areas linked with radical Islamists who may have helped seven suicide bombers carry out the carnage.
Referring to the anti-terrorist units of the French National Police carrying out the raids, an eye witness in the suburb of Bobigny said: “There are hundreds of them everywhere. Housing blocks are being stormed, and doors broken down. They are shouting ‘Police, Police!’ and pulling suspects away.”
Police sources say the raids in Bobigny were directly related to Friday’s atrocities.
The nation’s prime minister Manuel Valls said there had been 150 raids in all.
The primary suspect in Friday night’s attacks is 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, a “dangerous individual” who remains at large after stopping at the France-Belgium border on Saturday.
Image: Armed police deployed in Place de la Republique, in Paris after Friday night's deadly attacks. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images