French police arrest suspect over last week's Lyon bomb blast

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced the arrest on Twitter, but did not provide further details on the suspect or where he was arrested. Last week's bomb blast injured 13 people.

French interior minister Christophe Castaner after a bomb blast along a pedestrian street in the heart of Lyon, southeast France on May 24, 2019
AFP

French interior minister Christophe Castaner after a bomb blast along a pedestrian street in the heart of Lyon, southeast France on May 24, 2019

French police have arrested a 24-year old man suspected of being behind last week's bomb blast in the central city of Lyon that injured 13 people.

Security camera footage of the incident showed the partially masked suspect wheeling a bicycle to the scene, before leaving a bag outside a branch of a popular bakery chain.

The case is being handled as a terror investigation given the circumstances of the attack, committed in broad daylight, and the use of an explosive device capable of hitting a large number of people with screws and metal balls packed into a bag.

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The anti-terrorism unit of the Paris prosecutor office, which is handling the investigation, added that a 24-year-old man was arrested on Monday morning in Lyon and placed in custody.

DNA traces were found on the remains of the parcel, according to a source close to the investigation.

Another source said the judicial police arrested the suspect on the street after having after tailed him.

They decided not to arrest him at his apartment, the source said, for fear that there could still be some triacetone triperoxide or TATP, the powerful but unstable homemade explosive that was used in the attack.

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