Two 16-year-olds, including a Russian national of Chechen origin, have been placed in custody in Paris on suspicion of plotting an antisemitic attack, AFP reported on Monday, citing judicial and press sources.
According to Le Parisien, the Chechen teen, who arrived in France with his mother four years ago, sent a photo on WhatsApp holding a knife and declared he was “going to kill Jews in five days.”
He was in contact with another 16-year-old from the Paris region, who threatened to target a site of religious worship, the paper added.
France’s national anti-terror prosecutor’s office confirmed the reports, telling AFP that the pair had been charged with “participation in a terrorist criminal association with the aim of preparing one or more crimes against persons.”
So far in 2025, France has charged 20 minors with terrorism-related offenses, surpassing the 19 minors charged across all of 2024.
In September, French authorities detained a 17-year-old male suspected of planning large-scale terrorist attacks targeting embassies and government institutions, including the embassies of Israel, Britain, and the United States.
France has been on high alert in the wake of terrorist attacks in recent years. The country was first hit by a series of Islamist attacks starting in January 2015, with the attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris.
In November of that year, 130 people were killed in a series of jihadist attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS).