PARIS: French police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris early on Saturday when they arrested a person about to set off a homemade explosive device, officials and sources close to the case said.

The incident occurred around 3:30am in front of a Bank of America building in the chic 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets fr­om the Champs-Elysees.

Police grabbed the suspect just after he placed a dev­ice, made of five litres of liq­­­uid, believed to be fuel, and an ignition system, one of the sources said. After his arr­est, the suspect claimed to both a minor and a Senegalese cit­i­­zen, according to a police source, who cautioned that the authorities were still verifying his identity. He was accompanied by a second person, who took flight when officers arrived to arrest the pair.

The ignition component had 650 grams (23 ounces) of explosive powder in it, according to an initial assessment. The whole device was taken to the Paris police’s forensics lab for full analysis. France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it had immediately taken over the investigation, and confirmed the suspect caught was in police custody.

It said the probe it has launched was into “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous means in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and a “terrorist criminal conspiracy”.

Both the Paris judicial police and France’s domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), were involved in the probe, the office said.

According to a police source, the suspect said he had been recruited via the Snapchat app to carry out the bombing in exchange for the sum of 600 euros ($692). When the patrolling officers arrested him, he was about to ignite the device with a lighter.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2026