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TERRORISM

Actor rehearsing lines in French TGV train toilet is mistaken for terrorist

An actor who was rehearsing in the toilet of a TGV train from Paris to Marseille was quizzed by police as a possible terrorist threat after a guard overheard the words "weapon" and "gun", transport authorities said.

Actor rehearsing lines in French TGV train toilet is mistaken for terrorist
Photo: AFP
The 35-year-old had shut himself away to practise his lines for an English-language stage role.
 
But a passing train guard who overheard his soliloquy raised the alarm, telling his bosses there was someone talking about weaponry in the WC.
 
The high-speed train, en route to Paris from Marseille, made an unscheduled stop in the city of Valence where security forces took the man for questioning at a police station.
 
He was later released without charge.
 
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France is still under a state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 attacks in Paris, when jihadists killed 130 people in a night of carnage at venues across the city.
 
On Tuesday police shot and injured a man who attacked an officer outside Paris's Notre Dame cathedral.
 
“Taking into account the current context of terrorism and the national threat level, the train guard did not take any risks and for the avoidance of doubt had the man questioned,” a spokesman for national train company SNCF told AFP.

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TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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