Radicalization15,000 French citizens are in the process of being radicalized: French PM

France’s prime minister Manuel Valls warned on Sunday that some 15,000 French citizens could be in the process of being radicalized. His warning came a day after the police arrested a 15-year-old boy at his Paris home in order to thwart a planned weekend terrorist attack.

Bloomberg reports that the Saturday arrest of the teenager followed last Thursday’s arrest of what the Paris prosecutor said was a group of radicalized female “commandos” who were planning to attack the Notre Dame Cathedral. In addition to the three women, the police also arrested the 15-year-old daughter of one of arrested women.

The police said the arrest of the 15-year old boy on Sunday was not related to the arrest of the three women and the girl on Thursday.

The police noted that the plot by the three women to attack Notre Dame was discovered after the father of one of the three women reported to the police that she had disappeared with his car. He was briefly detained and interrogated because he was already being monitored by the French intelligence services for suspected ties to radicals.

The initial interrogation of the 15-year old boy revealed that he was planning to carry out a knife attack in a public place this weekend. The judicial official refused to identify the location where the attack was to occur.

On Sunday, Valls said that “every day attacks are foiled … (including) as we speak.”

Valls said nearly 15,000 people in France are being tracked because they are suspected of being in the process of radicalization, while 1,350 are under investigation – 293 of them for alleged links with a terrorism network. 

“Today the threat is at a maximum, and we are a target,” Valls said on Europe 1 radio. “Every day intelligence services [and] police foil attacks, dismantle networks, track terrorists.” 

Despite the tracking and other surveillance measures, Valls warned: “There will be new attacks. More innocent people will die.”