France foils church attack after suspect shoots self in leg

France said Wednesday it had foiled a jihadist plot to attack a church after an Algerian who accidentally shot himself was found with a stash of weapons and documents mentioning Islamist militant groups. The 24-year-old IT student Sid Ahmed Ghlam’s plans were exposed purely by chance after he called an ambulance saying he had been shot during an armed robbery at his Paris home, prosecutor Francois Molins told journalists. However, police uncovered an arsenal of weapons in his car and home, and detailed plans to attack one of two churches, as well as DNA evidence linking him to the murder of a woman who was found shot dead in her car over the weekend near the capital.

Detailed documents that were also found established beyond doubt that the individual was planning an imminent attack, probably on one or two churches.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve

The suspect, who was admitted to a Paris hospital after his arrest, was known to intelligence services over comments on social networks expressing his desire to go and fight in Syria alongside jihadists, said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. The arrest comes some three months after Islamic extremists gunned down 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine, a policewoman and four others at a Jewish supermarket in a three-day reign of terror in the French capital. The attack sent shockwaves around the world, and prompted several reforms in France including controversial new spy laws that are currently being debated in parliament.

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