PARIS, March 29 (Reuters) - French authorities have arrested two more suspects over a foiled attack on Bank of America’s Paris offices, the country’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.
“Two further individuals were taken into police custody last night as part of the investigation launched on March 28, 2026 into the offences committed against Bank of America,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement to Reuters. The custody of the first suspect arrested on Saturday, a minor, has been extended, it added.
Under French law, suspects in terrorism cases can be held in custody for up to 96 hours, with further extensions possible under judicial oversight.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said on Saturday it had opened an investigation into attempted destruction by fire or other dangerous means, as well as the manufacture, possession and transport of an explosive or incendiary device.
Asked about possible sponsors, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez pointed to suspicions involving Iran but said no conclusion had been reached.
“In this type of conflict, you have a number of Iranian services that are likely to carry out actions such as these through proxies… There is a significant suspicion, but it is for the investigation to determine,” he said.
The Iranian embassy in France declined to comment on Nunez’s remarks.
The probe has been assigned to the Paris police judicial unit and France’s domestic intelligence agency.
Nunez said police intervened in the early hours of Saturday morning in Paris’8th arrondissement after a patrol assigned to protecting sensitive sites spotted two individuals placing and attempting to ignite an improvised explosive device outside the bank.
Officers moved in and arrested one suspect at the scene while the second fled, Nunez told BFM TV late on Saturday.
“One individual was trying to light an improvised explosive device made with a container likely containing hydrocarbons and a crude ignition system, while another was filming,” Nunez said.
He added that the device, though rudimentary, could have been lethal, and that officers prevented it from being ignited.
Nunez said the individuals appeared to be “common-law” offenders acting as paid intermediaries, in what he described as a known modus operandi involving proxies recruited to carry out such attacks.
He said authorities had identified similarities with incidents in several European countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain and Norway, where improvised devices targeted sites linked to U.S. interests.
(Reporting by Mathieu RosemainEditing by Christina Fincher)
