French police have arrested a man suspected of planning an attack on "one or two churches" in a Paris suburb, the country's interior minister has said. Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a year-old Algerian national, was detained on Sunday in Paris after he apparently shot himself by accident and called an ambulance.
He is also being questioned over the murder of a woman on Sunday. France has stepped up security in the wake of recent attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and a Jewish supermarket.
Ghlam was known to security services as having expressed a wish to travel to Syria to fight with Islamist militants, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
When police arrived at the scene on Sunday, they followed a trail of blood to the suspect's car, where they found weapons and notes on potential targets. Police are questioning the suspect in connection with the murder of Aurelie Chatelain. They are searching a neighbourhood in Saint-Dizier, north-eastern France, where Ghlam spent time with his family. The documents established "beyond doubt" that Ghlam planned on attacking churches, said Mr Cazeneuve. Documents linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State were also found at his apartment, the Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
A contact in Syria had advised Ghlam to target churches, he added. The authorities have carried out security checks on the suspect twice in recent years but did not uncover anything to justify further investigation. It is not known yet what link the man has to the murdered woman, Aurelie Chatelain, who was found dead in her car in Villejuif, a Paris suburb, on Sunday.
