A person arrested after an alert on the Iranian consulate in Paris | EUROtoday

Published on : 04/19/2024 – 2:31 p.m.Modified : 04/19/2024 – 6:39 p.m.

4 minutes

A police intervention occurred on Friday April 19 on the Iranian consulate in Paris after “a witness saw a man entering there, carrying a grenade or an explosive vest”, we discovered from of the police headquarters (PP). The particular person was arrested.

The man, in accordance with data from Europe 1, had holed up in a consulate constructing, outfitted with an explosive belt and was threatening to blow himself up.

In actuality, no explosive was discovered “neither in the premises of the consulate, nor in the vehicle” of the suspect, introduced the Paris Police Prefecture, after the intervention of the BRI (analysis and intervention brigade ), an elite police unit.

According to a police supply, the person was sporting a vest with massive pockets containing three dummy offensive grenades.

The Paris prosecutor's workplace additionally informed AFP that “no explosive material” had been discovered “at this stage, neither on him nor on site”.

An Iranian nationwide already convicted in France

“According to the first elements, it concerns a man born in 1963 in Iran,” continued the prosecution, including that he had left the consulate “of his own accord” and that he “would have uttered threats of violent motion”.

The suspect was taken into custody. The investigation is open for “risk of demise materialized by the sporting of a pretend vest representing explosives”.

The investigations, entrusted to the 1st judicial police district, aim to “verify whether the elements constituting the offense are characterized and to understand the intention which motivated the suspect”, according to the prosecution.

“Verifications and reports are continuing in order to clarify the legal situation,” according to the same source.

Asked by AFP, the prosecution confirmed that this man had been tried by the Paris criminal court in immediate appearance in October 2023 for having set fire to tires in front of the gate of the Iranian embassy on September 9, an act he claimed in protest against the Iranian regime.

He was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment with suspended probation and a ban on appearing in the 16th arrondissement for two years, as well as a ban on carrying a weapon. He had appealed.

According to a source close to the case, his appeal trial is due to take place Monday afternoon in Paris.

Friday's affair began around “11 a.m.” with the report of a man who “would have been seen by a single witness getting into the consulate, rue de Fresnel, carrying a grenade or an explosive vest”, PP had beforehand reported to AFP.

At the beginning of the afternoon a safety perimeter had been arrange across the consulate, positioned within the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris close to the Trocadéro.

Traffic on metro traces 9 and 6 serving Trocadéro station, closest to the Iranian consulate, was interrupted for safety causes, as RATP introduced on X.

Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez mobilized, along with the BRI, vital regulation enforcement forces, famous an AFP journalist on website. The prefect was responding to a “request for intervention” from the consulate.

The Iranian consulate and embassy share the identical constructing, however have totally different entrances: 4 avenue d'Iena for the embassy and 16 rue Fresnel for the consulate.

After the arrest of the suspect, the safety system was nonetheless in place and round twenty journalists have been current, notably overseas journalists, in accordance with the AFP journalist.

Two police vehicles blocked the intersection of rue de la Manutention and rue Fresnel the place the Iranian consulate is positioned.

France raised its Vigipirate emergency assault system, to its highest stage, after the assault that occurred in March in Moscow in a efficiency corridor.

With AFP and Reuters