A street cleaner in a Paris suburb on Monday found an explosive vest similar to those used in the Paris attacks near the place where a suspect’s mobile phone had been found, raising the possibility that he aborted his mission, either ditching a malfunctioning vest or fleeing in fear.
The discovery of the vest came as Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel cited a “serious and imminent” threat justifying keeping the highest alert level operational for at least another week.
In France, police said an explosive vest — without a detonator — was found by a street cleaner in a pile of rubble in Chatillon-Montrouge, on the southern edge of Paris and a considerable distance from the sites of the attacks on the Right Bank of the Seine to the north.
Photo: EPA
A police official later said the vest contained bolts and the same type of explosives as those used in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, which claimed 130 lives and left hundreds wounded.
The device was found in the same area where a cellphone belonging to fugitive suspect Salah Abdeslam was located on the day of the Paris attacks, but the vest has not been formally linked to him, said two police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Belgium-based terrorism expert Claude Moniquet, who has been in contact with both Belgian and French investigators since the attacks, laid out two possibilities: that Abdeslam became afraid of carrying out a suicide mission, or that he simply ditched a defective explosive vest.
Nervousness could have played a role in concocting a defective vest, but Moniquet said he doubted fear played a role, because among Islamic State group followers, “it is rare not to go to the end.”
Moniquet said this was only theory, as he had not yet spoken to investigators.
A manhunt is underway for Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, was among attackers who blew themselves up. He crossed the border into Belgium after the attacks, with French police stopping and interviewing him, before letting him go.
Michel said that Brussels, which is home to the EU and NATO headquarters, faced a threat that requires keeping the city at the highest alert level, while the rest of the nation is to remain at the second-highest level. Belgium’s crisis center said the alert level would only change if a significant breakthrough warranted it.
“We are very alert and call for caution,” Michel said. “The potential targets remain the same: shopping centers, shopping streets and public transport. We want to return to a normal way of life as quickly as possible.”
Washington and Paris stepped up their fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, with France launching its first strikes from a newly deployed aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and the US calling for more international cooperation against the group.
Underlining heightened global fears of attacks after Islamic militants killed scores in Mali, Turkey and Nigeria in recent weeks, the US issued a worldwide travel alert warning US citizens of “increased terrorist threats.”
“Current information suggests that IS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions,” a US Department of State travel advisory said.
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