This Article is From Oct 18, 2019

France Prevented 9/11-Inspired Plane Hijack, Suspect Arrested: Minister

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said intelligence officers arrested a suspect last month who was inspired by the plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001.

France Prevented 9/11-Inspired Plane Hijack, Suspect Arrested: Minister

The suspect planned to hijack a plane in Europe, the French minister said. (Representational)

Paris:

French intelligence officers foiled a terror plot inspired by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City, France Interior Ministry said on Thursday

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told a French TV channel that intelligence officers arrested a suspect last month who was inspired by the plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001.

He planned to hijack a plane in Europe, the minister added.

The minister did not provide any further details in this regard, reported Russia Today.

Citing police sources, French media have reported that the suspect is aged under 30 and lived in the Hauts-de-Seine department, located west of central Paris. He was also reportedly considering carrying out the attack in another EU country, because France was under "too much surveillance," according to the reports.

The French minister said that authorities have foiled as many as 60 terror attacks since 2013.

On September 11, 2001, the US faced the deadliest terrorist attack when both towers of New York's World Trade Center collapsed after planes hijacked by al Qaeda operatives crashed into them, claiming the lives of 2,753 people.

.