French police have arrested a 26-year-old Ukrainian-Russian man who blew himself up with explosives in a hotel room north of Paris, a source at France’s PNAT anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
The man suffered severe burns in Monday’s blast and was being treated by firefighters, sources said, and a subsequent search of his room uncovered products and materials intended to make explosives.
The PNAT office, working with France’s domestic intelligence service, has launched an investigation into the man, who is suspected of participating in a terror plot and a bomb plot, the source said.
Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian embassies in Paris immediately responded to requests for comment.
Paris CDG airport, near where the man was arrested, said operations were not affected.
France is on maximum alert with less than two months to go before the opening of the Paris Olympics, which are taking place against a complex geopolitical backdrop with wars in Ukraine and Gaza posing major security challenges.
Last month, French security authorities arrested an 18-year-old Chechen man who was allegedly planning a suicide bomb attack at the Saint-Etienne soccer stadium, thwarting a planned attack on the Olympics.
