False Bomb Threats Target Paris Grand Mosque, Police Investigate

Threat messages of a terrorist attack on the Great Mosque of Paris, broadcast on Saturday and Sunday on an online forum dedicated to video games, were reported to the Pharos platform and handled by the judicial police, reports Europe 1. "I’m going to kill as many people as possible. I’ve hidden bombs in the Great Mosque of Paris that will explode within the hour. [...] I’m going to avenge my brothers and sisters and kill more people than at the Bataclan," threatened a first message posted on Saturday night at midnight on the platform. After investigations, the IP address of the sender would have been located in the commune of Saint-Étienne.

The second message, posted around 6 p.m. on Sunday, carries the same threats. Its author, whose IP address would have been located in Algeria, informs that he has "hidden an assault rifle" and "an explosive vest" in the Great Mosque of Paris and asks his "brothers" who would be affected by this attack to forgive him "for having tried to shake things up in this country". The French authorities have requested the cooperation of the Algerian police to try to identify the author of this message. The national pole against online hatred of the Paris judicial court has taken over the case and entrusted the investigation to the 3rd district of the judicial police.

Checks carried out at the Great Mosque of Paris have shown that these threats were not real. For the moment, everything seems normal, but the security of the site has been reinforced. The municipal police have increased patrols and mobile patrols in the Jardin des Plantes district in the 5th arrondissement where the targeted mosque is located. "We are looking at all this in a serious way with the utmost vigilance, because there is sometimes an anxious climate in France. Without giving in to paranoia, that is to say that we must continue to welcome tourists and Parisians who come to visit the Great Mosque in good conditions," assures Florence Berthout, the mayor of the 5th arrondissement.