French police arrest suspect wanted for Lyon bombing
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French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has announced that police have arrested a man suspected of being behind last week’s bomb blast in Lyon that injured 13 people.
Castaner announced the arrest on Twitter, but did not provide further details on the suspect or where he was arrested.
Colis piégé à #Lyon : un suspect vient d’être interpellé. Je salue la mobilisation de la SDAT, de la police judiciaire de Lyon et de la DGSI, co-saisies par la section antiterroriste du parquet de Paris. Leur action conjointe est déterminante.
Security camera footage of the incident showed the partially masked suspect wheeling a bicycle to the scene, before leaving a bag outside a branch of a popular bakery chain.
The case is being handled as a terrorism investigation given the circumstances of the attack, committed in broad daylight, and the use of an explosive device capable of hitting a large number of people with screws and metal balls packed into a bag.
A handout photo made available by the French National Police on Twitter on 24 May 2019 shows a Wanted Notice for a man who is a suspect in the bomb explosion in rue Victor Hugo in the center of Lyon, France, 24 May 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/FRENCH NATIONAL POLICE
Traces of DNA were recovered from the rucksack that held the explosive but authorities cautioned that it did not necessarily belong to the suspect. The DNA sample did not match any listed in France’s national DNA index (Fichier national des empreintes génétiques), said a source close to the investigation.
Sources close to the investigation suspected the explosive was acetone peroxide, or APEX, a volatile compound used in the deadly Paris attacks on November 13, 2015.
