Story highlights
Four men and a woman were arrested by French anti-terror investigators, the prosecutor's office said
Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron faces far-right National Front rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday
French anti-terror investigators have arrested five people just days before the presidential election, the Paris prosecutor’s office told CNN Tuesday.
Four men and a woman were arrested in three areas of the country and four weapons were recovered, the office of Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said. No other details were available.
Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron is edging towards the Élysée Palace, but the frontrunner still faces challenges ahead of Sunday’s second-round vote against far-right National Front rival, Marine Le Pen.
A deadly attack last month on a police bus in the heart of Paris dramatically changed the course of the presidential campaign.
The three main candidates canceled campaign events and instead made televised statements in which they competed to talk tough on security and vowed a crackdown on ISIS.
One officer died after a gunman wielding a machine gun leapt out of a car and opened fire on the Champs-Élysées, Paris’s most famous boulevard, as candidates were engaging in their final TV debate.
In mid-April, two men arrested in Marseilles were accused of preparing an “imminent violent attack” in the run-up the presidential election, French Interior Minister Matthias Fekl told CNN’s French affiliate, BFM.
The arrests “took place as part of an investigation by the anti-terrorist section of Paris public prosecutor’s office,” Fekl said. The men, born in 1993 and 1987, of French nationality, had the intention of committing an attack on French soil within the next few days, he said.
