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France arrests 5 in alleged terror plot

Explosives were found near a train station and a stadium.

By Ed Adamczyk
Protests against the French magazine Charlie Hebdo occurred across the Muslim world, this one in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Jan. 16, 2015. Photo by Sajjad Ali Qureshi/UPI
Protests against the French magazine Charlie Hebdo occurred across the Muslim world, this one in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Jan. 16, 2015. Photo by Sajjad Ali Qureshi/UPI | License Photo

BEZIERS , France, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Five Chechen nationals were arrested Tuesday in an alleged plot to bomb public buildings, police in the southern French town of Beziers said.

One of the unidentified men is a resident of the town, and caches of explosives were found near the town's rail station and stadium, the local newspaper Midi Libre reported. It added one man was arrested in Beziers, a town of 71,000 on the Mediterranean coast; the other four were arrested in Montpelier, 42 miles away.

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The men are held on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. Prosecutor Yvon Calvet said certain "products" were found in the suspects' homes.

France has been on heightened alert since Jan. 7, when Islamist gunmen attacked the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo; 20 people were killed in the assault and related incidents in following days, and dozens more were arrested in police raids in Germany, Greece, France and Belgium.

The arrests in southern France came the day after a rally in Grozny, Chechnya, protesting the magazine drew several hundred thousand people.

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