French has arrested a 27-year-old Tunisian man suspected of planning attacks "inspired by jihadism", the anti-terror prosecutor's office said on Monday. A source said he was targeting a Paris museum and members of the Jewish community.
Issued on: 11/05/2026 - 22:16Modified: 11/05/2026 - 22:25
French authorities have arrested a 27-year-old Tunisian man suspected of "plotting a violent action inspired by jihadism", the anti-terror prosecutor's office told AFP on Monday.
According to a source familiar with the case, the investigation established that the suspect was aiming to attack "a Paris museum as well as members of the Jewish community, although no specific target had been identified".
The man was arrested on May 7 after a preliminary probe was launched the day before into suspected "terrorist criminal conspiracy", the PNAT prosecutor's office said, confirming a report in Le Monde newspaper.
Besides plotting the attack in Paris, the suspect was contemplating joining "the ranks of the Islamic State terrorist organisation in Syria or Mozambique", it added.
Two newspapers, Le Monde and Le Parisien, reported that the suspect had considered the Louvre museum as a possible target, as well as the Jewish community in the capital's 16th arrondissement.
Both the internal DGSI security services and the counter-terrorism unit of the SAT-BC criminal investigation division were entrusted with the probe.
He was placed in pre-trial detention on Monday.
France has been on high alert for attacks inspired by radical Islamist ideology, against the backdrop of the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran and Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Read moreNew Trump counterterrorism strategy brands Europe an 'incubator' for terrorism
According to Le Monde, the suspect was born in Djerba in 1999 and arrived in France in 2022 after reaching Europe via the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frequent first port of call for migrants arriving from North Africa.
An analysis of his cellphone revealed numerous jihadist propaganda videos as well as hundreds of photos of firearms and knives, and he used an image of an IS group fighter executing prisoners as a profile picture on social media, the newspaper reported.
His phone also contained searches on ChatGPT with questions such as "how to make a bomb", it added.
When contacted by AFP, the suspect's lawyer Reda Ghilaci did not immediately comment.
After a period of calm between 2021 and 2023, France has seen a rise in jihadist violence, according to anti-terror prosecutors.
In 2025, three attacks left two people dead, while the internal security services thwarted seven others.
In March, a 22-year-old engineering student and his 20-year-old brother, both of Italian-Moroccan nationality, were arrested in the country's north over what the authorities called a "deadly and antisemitic" plot.
Countries around Europe have reported a spate of incidents targeting the continent's Jewish community, some of which investigators have linked to Iran.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Read next
Today's top stories
Most read