French police speak of kidnap plot by arrested suspects

The police intelligence unit said they might have been plotting a kidnap.They appeared to be preparing a kidnap, Bernard Squarcini of the Central Directorate for Domestic Intelligence (DCRI) told La Provence newspaper.He did not elaborate on the alleged plot, but said the group was made up of French nationals who were involved in collective war-like training, linked to a violent, religious indoctrination.Some of those arrested belonged to a suspected extremist group called Forsane Alizza, he said.The group was dissolved as of February 29 and the funds of 26 of its members were frozen, but they continued to carry out physical training exercices in parks and woods and sought weapons, Squarcini told the Marseille-based newspaper.They were involved in paintball gun games, he said.—AFP