Far-right extremists arrested in France over terror plot targeting politicians and migrants

Ten people with close ties to a far-right extremist group have been arrested in France on suspicion of planning terror attacks against mosques, politicians and migrants.

French counter-terrorism police arrested nine men and one woman in Paris and Marseille on Tuesday (17 October).

The suspects aged 17-25 are believed to have ties with Logan Alexandre Nisin, a former militant of the far-right group Action Française Provence.

Nisin was arrested in June after he posted online that he planned to attack "blacks, drug dealers, migrants and jihadist scoundrels."

On Facebook, Nisin also glorified Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who shot dead 69 people on the island of Utoya in 2011. Police discovered two revolvers and one rifle in Nisin's home upon his arrest.

The woman who was arrested is believed to be Nisin's mother.

A French official told The Associated Press that the suspects were arrested on a charge of criminal terrorist association. He said that they had been planning attacks against "a place of worship, politicians and migrants."

"They were only in the earliest planning stages," the source said.

Another source named the politicians as far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon and government spokesperson Christophe Castaner, according to French newspaper Le Parisien.

A spokesperson for Melenchon, who ran as a presidential candidate in this year's elections, complained that he was not informed of the threat and that "requests for protection during the legislative elections were rejected."