Two men arrested as plumber uncovers bomb in factory

Two people have been arrested after police found components that can be used to make bombs in an apartment in a Paris suburb. A plumber working in the building in the southern suburb of Villejuif saw what he thought resembled detonators and called the police, with security forces rushing to the scene. The building was evacuated and work ordered to be stopped on a building site next to the apartment while bomb disposal experts examined the detonators. Two men were arrested in a car in the nearby suburb of Le Kremlin-Bicetre. One of them was the tenant of the apartment. France Info radio compared the flat to a ‘laboratory’ which contained sulphuric acid, acetone and oxygenated water as well as electric components, batteries and basins. The mixture creates a coarse powder of white crystals that requires only a basic detonator to explode, triggering a blast of burning gas. It has also been reported that gas canisters were too found. Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, said: “But what we can see is that they were linked to terrorism, and that is the line of inquiry we are following. “We didn’t know them, which, if I may say, shows the extent of the risk. “There are 18,000 people being watched and there are a certain number of people we don’t know who, all of a sudden, take up terrorist actions.”