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France arrests man over murder of woman and four children: police source

French police on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of murdering a mother and her four children found dead at home on Christmas Day, a law enforcement source said.

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People bring bunches of flowers to the flat where the bodies of a woman and her four children where discovered, in Meaux, eastern Paris, on December 26, 2023. - French police arrested, the father, suspected of murdering his wife and their four children aged nine months, four, seven and 10 years old, opening an inquiry into their "premeditated murder", in Meaux, eastern Paris, on December 26th, 2023. Photo by: ALAIN JOCARD / AFP

Authorities discovered the bodies of the woman and her children aged nine months, four, seven and 10 years old in their flat in the town of Meaux east of Paris on Monday evening after worried relatives sounded the alarm, local prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier said.

The police source said the main suspect had been detained in the nearby town of Sevran.

“The flat showed no sign of breaking and entering, and the father was absent,” he said earlier.

A source close to the case said the 35-year-old mother and her children were killed with “a cold weapon”, a term usually used to refer to a knife.

The source said police had been looking for a 33-year-old man.

The Versailles judicial police service opened an inquiry into “premeditated murder”.

The Paris region has recently seen a series of infanticides.

In late November, a 41-year-old man confessed to killing his three daughters, aged four to 11, and turned himself in.

Police found them dead in his home in the town of Alfortville, in the south-eastern suburbs of the capital.

A month earlier, in October, a gendarme killed his three daughters before killing himself at his home in Vemars, northeast of the capital.

On average, a woman is killed every three days in France. Some 118 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner in France last year.

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CRIME

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a "terrorist" attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning militant attacks.

The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” said the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

READ ALSO: Anti-Semitism fears stalk Jewish voters’ choice in France

The youth aged under 18 was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” said the source without giving details on the plot.

Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.

READ ALSO: French election breakdown: TV debates, polling latest and anti-Semitism

“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.

Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making anti-Semitic insults.

Several protest rallies have been held in Paris and other French cities over the case which comes as France prepares for a national election in which the far-right National Rally party is tipped to make major gains. 

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