2 suspects in France face terror charges over explosives lab

The counterterrorism prosecutor in Paris says two men with links to an explosives lab discovered last week in an apartment near Paris have been handed preliminary charges for terrorist association and explosives manufacture.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said Sunday the two men detained, a 36-year-old apartment owner and another previously known to intelligence authorities, were aiming “to manufacture a bomb.” But he said they had not yet formed a plan to carry out a specific attack.

Police cordon off a street in Villejuif, a suburb of Paris, on September 6, 2017, as two men were arrested, after the discovery of explosives and bomb components at an apartment. (AFP/Christophe Simon)

Molins said the 36-year-old confessed to following Islamic State bomb-making videos using the explosive materials that could have produced between 3 to 4 kilograms (6 ½ to 8 ¾ pounds) of the explosive TATP. Molins said the two admitted they wanted to join Islamic State.

A third man was released Sunday without being charged.

— AP