A 22-year-old engineering student and his 20-year-old brother have been arrested in France over a “deadly and antisemitic” terror plot, prosecutors have said.
French authorities arrested the brothers last week after they were spotted in a car near a prison in the northern town of Longuenesse, according to the country’s national anti-terror prosecutor's office (Pnat).
The men, identified only as Elyasse H and Moad H in line with French law, have dual Moroccan and Italian citizenship and were operating a drone outside the facility.
Officers found a semi-automatic weapon, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, aluminium foil and an Isis flag stretched across the headrest of the driver’s seat, according to the prosecutors.
In a statement, Pnat said the brothers admitted in policy custody that, after concluding they could not wage jihad in Syria or the Palestinian territories, they had in recent weeks developed a "terrorist plan in France, for which they aspired to martyrdom".
They were planning “a terror plot whose deadly and antisemitic nature appears to be established,” the statement continued, without providing further detail.
A video made by Moad H earlier this month pledging allegiance to so-called Islamic State was also discovered, the prosecutors said.
“Exchanges with various contacts via encrypted messaging services in the days and weeks leading up to their arrests, aimed in particular at sourcing handguns or assault rifles, suggest that a violent act was imminent,” they added.
An investigation was opened on Sunday into criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism, as well as the acquisition and carrying of weapons.
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