French police arrested a man in the early hours of Saturday who was preparing to detonate a homemade explosive device outside a Bank of America branch on Rue de la Boétie in Paris's 8th arrondissement, just blocks from the Champs-Élysées.
Officers spotted the suspect holding a lighter near a makeshift device consisting of a five-liter container of what appeared to be a hydrocarbon liquid and a firecracker containing around 650 grams of explosive powder. A second individual accompanying him fled as police approached.
During questioning, the arrested man said he had been contacted via Snapchat and paid €600 to carry out the attack, and that someone had driven him to the scene by car.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into attempted terrorist arson, manufacture of an explosive device, and membership of a terrorist conspiracy. The suspicious liquid has been sent for laboratory analysis.
The incident comes amid heightened security alerts in France following the launch of US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Bomb attack on Bank of America foiled in Paris
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