French police arrest suspected Al Qaeda terrorist plotting attack on nursery school

French police have arrested a man who was plotting to perpetrate an attack on children at a nursery school, according to French media reports.

The man, who referred to himself as the “heir of Mohamed Merah,” the terrorist who killed four people in a shooting attack at the Ozar HaTorah Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012, was apprehended on March 25. He was caught in the Seine-et-Marne region, which is near Paris.
Media reports said that a second man was arrested, too, on charges of complicity.

Police described the arrested as a 21-year-old male. They said he admitted he was planning to “kill some children and take others hostage,” with the goal of dragging police into a gun battle.

Merah was an Algerian-born French citizen, who had trained with the Al Qaeda terrorist organization. On March 19, 2012, he carried out his attack, murdering Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and two of his sons, as well as another 8-year-old girl. Police shot and killed Merah during his arrest three days later, after a 30-hour siege and gun battle that left six officers wounded.

Source: WSJ